Dr. Julia Robersion Interview

NEXT with Marcus Atkinson

For the past decade, Dr. Julia Robinson Moore has been researching and uncovering the truth about burial grounds for enslaved people in churches and communities in and around here home in Charlotte, NC. Dr. Moore is an ordained Presbyterian pastor and as she traveled around preaching at various churches she noticed something about the cemeteries that are on the church grounds of so many churches. What she noticed was that the cemeteries had two distinct sections, one that was manicured and well maintained with beautiful stones and gardens where the white people were buried, and the other, which was largely unmaintained, overgrown and had fallen into disuse. These were the graves of slaves.

As a tactic for reclaiming dignity and bringing together those whose ancestors were slave owners and those who were slaves she has begun working with churches to restore the slave cemeteries. She says that this work of hers is about building communities committed to truth telling and healing and racial justice and reconciliation.

Julia is an ordained Presbyterian minister and an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at UNC Charlotte where she teaches courses in African American religion and racial violence in America among other things. She is the author of "Race, Religion, and the Pulpit...

You will find her to be a gracious and gentle soul who is doing important work. It is rare to find a person who embodies as much beauty and dignity as Dr. Moore.

If you want to find out more about her work you can contact her at through the University at email:

https://religiousstudies.charlotte.edu/directory/julia-robinson-moore-dr-rob