"The issue may not literally be about race but it’s among the races, working together on common issues…That’s an entry point that I think that a lot of people who are nervous about this subject can at least enter a common discussion right in the neighborhoods where they live.”
---Ruth A. Wooden

Traces of the Trade: A Story From the Deep North is a film that chronicles the journey of descendents of the largest slave-trading family in America as they uncover their ancestors’ history, explore the economic history of our nation, and begin a quest for personal and national reconciliation. The dialogue was designed to be the beginning of a process of healing that the film and its engagement campaign will then carry across the country. Together they are an effort to use the past to propel us into a better future. The film Traces of the Trade exemplifies the power of media to bring about social change.

“We live in a time where there’s a general fatigue in this society with issues of race…there’s a desire, almost a yearning to get past race and I think the genius of the film is to show…how we have barely even scratched the surface of his issue.” ---Prof. Goodwin Liu

“People often ask me what do I see as the difference between the discourse in South Africa and the discourse in the United States, and I often say that in South Africa race is on the table; in the United States it’s under the table if it’s anywhere in the room. We don’t want to talk about it publicly.” ---Ambassador James A. Joseph

"I think Lincoln’s [speech] is unique in its interpretation of race as a biblically cast question that brings up questions about reconciliation, forgiveness, repentance, and addressing justice in empirical, material terms as well as spiritual terms." ---Dr. J. Bryan Hehir