Monthly Dose of Inspiration

Every month,?I share one inspiring story I discover while creating better workplace cultures and corporate citizens. It's one way of staying connected. This story is perhaps the bravest I've discovered to date. It is very timely too.

Does your family have a secret? At the age of 28, Katrina Browne discovered hers. Two hundred years earlier, her ancestors were on their way to becoming the largest slave traders in U.S. history. The DeWolf family was responsible for trafficking over 10,000 enslaved Africans to the United States, and they ran their operation from Rhode Island. Yes, the North!

As a young woman, what do you do with this information?

Katrina convened a group of family members, produced an Emmy-nominated documentary about her family's history, and created a nonprofit called The Tracing Center to raise "awareness of the full extent of the nation’s complicity in slavery and the transatlantic slave trade and to inspire acknowledgement, dialogue and active response to this history and its many legacies."

If Katrina can find the strength and courage to confront the past, we can too. This week, we celebrated America's birthday. Let's embrace the totality of her being - the good, the bad and the ugly.