Monday letters: ETV documentary on racial reconciliation should inspire action

ETV’s outstanding documentary film, “A Seat at the Table,” dedicated to the Emanuel nine, argues that we need to seize this moment of discussion and confrontation to create a South Carolina Institute for Racial Reconciliation. News accounts indicate that USC is working to establish exactly this kind of program to address racial tensions that prevent genuine reconciliation in our communities. Gov. Nikki Haley herself has provided significant leadership in encouraging racial reconciliation.

The late John Rainey, the film’s executive producer, also sponsored Camden’s twin statues of Camden natives financier Bernard Baruch, son of Prussian Jewish Confederate surgeon Simon Baruch, and Larry Doby, the first African-American in the American League. Mr. Rainey remains a template of possibility for all of us.

Proud of his Confederate forebears, he also understood to the marrow of his being that “Southern heritage” embodied black South Carolinians as well as white, and that out of racial reconciliation, we will find transformation and vitality.

“A Seat at the Table,” directed by Betsy Newman, with assistant director Bud Ferillo, will be repeated at 5 p.m. on Sept. 27.