A History of Racism in Charlottesville illustrates James Baldwin's premise that “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” It describes why severe past trauma cannot become reconciled until the entire Community hears the same story. It offers win-win repair for dissolving institutional logjams and hot-boxes. This compact investigation of central Virginia leadership from the 1720s onward offers a template for communities and institutions to engage in local history re-examination. By facing its submerged past more honestly, systemic roadblocks are dissolving and transforming in Charlottesville. AHORC ’s design is not intended as shock therapy. It is an educative tool for decision-makers, for thought leaders, promoting empathy. Comprehending and supporting the equity-concerns of people of color elevates communication, harmony and productivity for everyone. Baldwin’s equation invites a moral, ethical, even spiritual paradigm shift that significantly enhances social and material bottom-lines. Today a deceptive dog whistle is shrilling: “Don’t speak of racism when teaching American history.” This fear-grenade is being lobbed by self-interested politicians who are masters of divisiveness and laser-focused on their own wallets. The goal of these opportunists is to resurrect – and not subtly - the Jim Crow tenet that one particular race is superior to others. They intend to obstruct Black voting. They incite followers toward discrimination or prejudice based on race. Charlottesville became a national flashpoint in the removal of large public Confederate statuary. A United States president had named the town’s white nationalist assaulters as “good people.” This called attention to a place steeped in three centuries of racism – as described above – too long abetted by the city’s white political and economic leadership. With its subtitle, A Journey Toward Understanding, these chapters offer healing truths for my city. They can do likewise for our country at large . The book is meant for general readers and for all citizens attuned to our present era of racial reconstruction. Let it become required reading for freshman college classes across the country and in first year law school/JAG classes. Absorbing the content of coming pages is vital for civic administrators, corporation management and heads of intellectual institutions. That all citizens fully comprehend racism’s negative and destructive consequences is a national requirement. Facing them softens the stone, promotes flow and repairs the social-compact. Comprehension precedes reconciliation. A History of Racism in Charlottesville will change us, within and without, for the better.