Deaconess Foundation starts program to help Black St. Louisans recover from racism

The Deaconess Foundation wants to help African Americans in the St. Louis region recover from the effects of racial trauma through its Institute for Black Liberation.

The institute aims to teach 25 participants how to develop a mindset that is free from internalized and structural racism. During a yearlong program that begins this fall, they will learn how to identify white supremacy and its impacts, address racism and combat stereotypes of Black people.

Funded by a $1 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the institute also will provide participants with leadership training so they can help drive change in their communities.

Black people must first understand the role that systemic and structural racism has played in their lives for generations to mentally heal and move forward, said Rudy Nickens, the institute’s program director.

“Freedom right now is the ability to imagine it, to create it and to think, ‘What would my life be like if I could live outside of the effects of those hurts’,” Nickens said. “Unless we get our minds clear and get our collective connections to this ideology, together, we'll never be able to really mount the kind of effective change and resistance that we seek.”