- If you're not feeling thesouls of the departed here,

something's wrong with you.

- It's a moment of reality

and acknowledgement and asacred time actually, too,

just to realize what ourancestors went through

so that we're actually still here today.

- [Announcer] On this day,

a coalition from across Virginia

walks a part of the Richmond Slave Trail.

One stop, the historicLumpkin's Jail site,

where hundreds of thousands of slaves

were bought and sold.

Virginians for Reconciliationstarted last year

to confront racism.

One founder, former Governor Bob McDonald,

says, "moving forward is impossible

without acknowledgingthe wrongs of the past."

- Because this story has to be told about

what happened within three hundred yards

of the state capitol,

the governor's mansion,

people were being bought and sold.

Families being ripped apart.

We have to understand

what does that still mean today?

- [Announcer] Among the group,

out of town guests with a special history.

Lynn Jackson is adescendant of Dred Scott,

a slave who notably sued the government

for his freedom.

In 1857, the case woundup in the Supreme Court

with then Chief Justice,

Roger Brooke Taney,

playing a lead role in striking it down.

Standing next to Jackson on this day,

one of Taney's descendants.

- Roger Brooke Taney made a decision that

blacks were inferior to whites

and had no standing as a citizen,

could not be citizens,

and therefore,

he had no standing to sue for his freedom.

- The two now work together spreading

the message of educationand reconciliation.

- The person causing the harm

has to recognize they did it,

they have to go to the injured party

and recognize to them that they hurt them,

and they have to express regret,

and then the injured partyhas to forgive you for that.

And when we did that,

the Scott's embraced us and forgave us.

- If they can do it,

we should all take encouragementand be able to do it.

- Because for Dred Scott and Taney to be

working together

is something most people would think

would never happen.

- [Announcer] That'swhy the two felt it was

important to be here,

on this day,

together.

- Former Governor Bob McDonald says

later on this year,

ground would be brokenright here on this site

with money that was appropriated

during his administration,

to tell the story of slave trading

here in Virginia,

and what those men andwomen had to endure.

The timing is important as the country

remembers 400 years

since the first slaveswere brought to America.

- It started here in Virginia,

in that sense,

and we would like it to come full circle

and possibly end here.

- [Announcer] In Richmond,

Eric Philips, CBN