Date: August 28, 2025
Recently, I had a conversation with a friend of the Seminary who wanted proof of systemic racism in America. He was not, for example, persuaded by the evidence that a higher percentage of African Americans die at the hands of law enforcement. As I listened, I paused—puzzled. Even at the level of basic education, there seemed to be a striking lack of awareness about the history of race relations in this country.
I have participated in Intercultural Competency training on three occasions. One session I found particularly illuminating addressed the shocking practice of redlining. From the 1930s through the 1960s, redlining was a policy enforced by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation and the Federal Housing Administration. It made it virtually impossible to secure a mortgage in neighborhoods designated as “risky,” which were predominantly African American urban districts. During this period, there were even guidelines that explicitly banned non-white occupancy in certain areas. Because a home is so often a family’s primary asset—something passed down from one generation to the next—the consequences of this policy disadvantaged countless African American families for decades.
This program is deeply important for VTS. At its most basic level, our work is about education. To understand the present, one must first understand the past. And the future will never be different until we honestly confront the impact of that past on the present.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary and the President of The General Theological Seminary.