Over 250 people from around the United States participated in “Historical Trauma in the American South” on July 15, 2021, the first of six events in PACEs Connections’ Historical Trauma in America Series that examines the impact of intergenerational trauma on the health and well-being of individuals today.
Historical trauma—another term for intergenerational trauma—is defined by Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart as multigenerational trauma experienced by a specific cultural group resulting in “a cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over the lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group trauma” (Brave Heart, N.D.). As recent advances in the science of positive and adverse childhood experiences (PACEs science) continue to show the profound impact of historical trauma on society today, PACEs Connection launched this series to educate and empower people to take action to mitigate its adverse impact and promote resilience in their regions.
Ingrid Cockhren, PACEs Connection director of PACEs Connection’s Cooperative of Communities, and Carey Sipp, who is the organization’s community facilitator for the Southeast, facilitated the first event. It focused on the specific cultural and historical factors that have shaped intergenerational trauma in the South, including the treatment of Indigenous Americans, chattel slavery, Jim Crow, mass incarceration and segregation.
Cockhren, who is an expert in historical trauma and critical race theory, provided an introductory overview of PACEs science and the role of intergenerational trauma. Sipp described the trauma that Southern Indigenous tribes—such as the Creeks, Seminoles, and Cherokees—experienced during their battles with white settlers during the American-Indian Wars between 1622 and the late 19th century (Drake, 2004). Cockhren followed by discussing historical trauma among African Americans in the South, including chattel slavery and the Jim Crow Era to lay the foundation for the systemic racism present today.
The event concluded with a conversation among participants from different geographic locations—including California, the Carribean, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, and Tennessee—and different sectors—including mental health, social work, and healthcare—to share experiences.
“My heart is so very heavy,” said one participant. “Our Indigenous sisters disappear, and their remains are found, the reporting process and forensics causes me to ask myself if we have really progressed as a nation.”
Many participants expressed surprise at the extent to which historical trauma still impacts people of color living in the South today in the modern forms of discrmination such as environmental racism and microaggressions.
“I spent 15 years working in South Arkansas in the Mississippi Delta Region as a mental health professional,” said one person. “My primary clients were African American, impoverished children and families. There is a very distinct parenting strategy I witnessed of teaching kids not to trust the White people and all the White people are bad or racist or trying to make money off them. There is also an underlying treatment of Black people as ‘less than’ or ‘beneath them’ by White people. Sometimes it is very direct, especially by older White people but a subtle, indirect kind, pretty constant by many White people, not even conscious at times. I also witnessed that the economic differences were huge, as well as enrichment activities for children or community services. Many of the kids I worked with had never been out of the rural county they lived in.”
Other people were surprised to learn that the physical segregation present during the time of chattel slavery and the Jim Crow Era South is still present today.
“I wonder if there are still ‘sundown towns’ in places like Mississippi?” asked one person. The answers were chilling.
“There are!”
“Vidor, Texas, is a sundown city for sure—very scary.”
“We have towns in Oklahoma where Blacks know not to go after sundown.”
One participant described their surprise: “As a woman of color and from the Caribbean, I thought I knew history but there is so much more to learn and understand.”
“The question remains,” said one person as the conversation pivoted to what to do about this dire situation. “How do we talk to, teach children about these conflicting and erroneous narratives?”
“If CRT (Critical Race Theory) wasn't such a hot topic,” said another participant, “it wouldn't be banned. Yes, we KNOW America is a racist country and was founded as a racist country with social constructs that still exist today, but people are still in denial and are still making laws to prevent this discussion. We can not conquer what we won't confront or even confess.”
Before the webinar ended participants were sharing educational resources on historical trauma with each other. Those resources are listed below.
“What’s so interesting about this webinar is the change in human understanding of slavery,” said Jane Stevens, PACEs Connection’s founder and publisher. “Just two centuries ago, most people in the world were in slavery or serfdom. Throughout history, slavery was prevalent in almost every culture. Romans and Greeks had slaves. Incas and Aztecs had slaves. Slavery existed before money or written laws, according to Adam Hochschild, author of Bury the Chains. Although we’ve made considerable progress, the situation we’re in now, reflected in this amazing webinar, shows how difficult it is for humans to change. However, I believe that with the spread of PACEs science, we have a good chance to accelerate change.”
Cockhren and Sipp hope that the Historical Trauma in the American South and the upcoming events in this series will empower individuals and communities to mitigate the adverse impact of historical trauma and promote resiliency. For ideas of how you can become involved with PACEs Connection to advance the PACEs movement, you can:
Become a member of PACEs Connection to connect with other PACEs advocates, access and add to a comprehensive and continuously updated library of PACEs resources and community calendar of events, and receive information about PACEs Connection trainings and virtual events.
- Register for and attend the upcoming additional five events in PACEs Connection’s Historical Trauma in America Series (click here to register for the event on Historical Trauma in the Midwest on Thursday, September 16, 2021, from 1:00 - 2:30 pm EST).
- Join an existing geographic or interest-based community on PACEs Connection to become involved in an organized trauma initiative, or start your own.
- Learn how to grow your community by joining our Cooperative of Communities.
- Continue to expand your knowledge of historical trauma by using resources such as the “PACEs Connection Historical Trauma in the American South Resource List” compiled by participants during this webinar featured below.
PACEs Connection Historical Trauma in the American South Resource List (As shared by attendees using the Zoom chat box during the webinar.)
- Sotero, Michelle, A Conceptual Model of Historical Trauma: Implications for Public Health Practice and Research (Fall 2006). Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 93-108.
- Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults - The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study
- ACE Study publications (more than 70 than published over two decades) are available on the Centers for Disease Control site
- Centers for Disease Control Vital Signs report on ACEs https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/aces/index.html
- Pair of ACEs Tree - Milken Institute School of Public Health
- Building Healthy and Resilient Communities Across North Carolina - One Community at a Time
- Smithsonian National History Museum of African American History and Culture
- PACEs Connection Anti-Racism Resources List
- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
- Two Unsolved Lynchings and a Trial of the Century by Mark S. Zaid
- The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture by Vincent Woodard
- Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism
- Deep South Center for Environmental Justice
- Learning for Justice
- A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
- Leveraging Self Compassion to Counter White Supremacy
References
Brave Heart, M. Y. H. (N.D.). The return to the sacred path: Reflections on the development of historical trauma healing [PowerPoint slides]. Indian Health Service. https://www.ihs.gov/sites/telebehavioral/themes/responsive2017/display_objects/documents/slides/historicaltrauma/htreturnsacredpath0513.pdf
Drake, J. D. (2004). Native American wars. In J. W. Chambers (Ed.), The Oxford companion to American military history. Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195071986.001.0001/acref-9780195071986-e-0618
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