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HANNIBAL, MO. -- The following is a press release from the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum:

The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum will host an “Awareness and Understanding of Systemic Racism” workshop on Friday, August 27 from 9:00-3:00 at the Museum Gallery.  Community Partnership for Reconciliation (CPR), a diverse group of citizens working to eliminate racism and its residual destructive impact, is sponsoring the event.  The workshop will be facilitated by a national team with a 39-year history of working towards racial justice and reconciliation. 

The Museum’s role in preserving Twain’s legacy includes explaining how a boy from a slave-holding home and community could “unlearn” beliefs instilled during childhood and grow up to write Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain’s anti-racism, anti-slavery treatise and generally regarded as his masterpiece.    

“We like to ask ourselves, ‘What would Mark Twain do?’” said Cindy Lovell, executive director of the Museum and a member of CPR, “and we believe he would support any effort to reduce racism and promote harmony, especially here in his hometown.”  Many people do not know that Twain secretly paid the tuition of a gifted black student at Yale when he learned the student held three jobs and lived with the school’s carpenter just to be able to pay tuition.  That student, Warner T. McGuinn, went on to become a lawyer and president of the NAACP in Baltimore where he later mentored a struggling young, black lawyer: Thurgood Marshall.

Pastor Minnie Smith, a founding member of CPR, agrees that collaborative efforts like this are critical in community building.  “I have taken this workshop in the past,” she said, “and they do an excellent job.  We hope that other community leaders will join us in our endeavors.  The outcomes are always very positive.” 

Toto Rendlen, another founding member of CPR, agreed.  “We have to lead by example.  This is not a ‘preachy’ approach, but a realistic investigation into confronting our own perceptions about those who are different from us.  It is a uniquely personal experience.”

There is no cost for the workshop, although a $10 donation is appreciated.  Space is limited to 40 adults.  Continental breakfast and lunch are provided.  Please call the Museum at 573-221-9010, ext. 401 to reserve a place.