Kindred Connection: Two Women Embark On Journey Of Racial Reconciliation

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Dr. Betty Kilby Baldwin and Phoebe Kilby are on a journey across Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia to talk about how to heal a divided nation.

"We're talking about racial reconciliation, and we're crossing the racial divide, trying to bring our nation together as one people," Dr. Baldwin said.

It is a topic they are uniquely qualified to tackle. But to understand why is to understand the women's interwoven history.

Betty, the daughter of a farmer, grew up in Fort Royal, Virginia, where she would eventually help to desegregate.

"February 18, 1959, 23 African American students walked up the hill to desegregate Warren County High School," Baldwin said. "I was one of them."

She talks about this experience in her book "WIT, WILL & WALLS," which she calls her historical autobiography.

Kilby's upbringing was much different. Born and raised in Baltimore, she would attend Bryn Mawr, a school she credits for opening her eyes to racial inequalities.

"I grew up in a household where my father in particular spoke disparagingly about African Americans," Kilby said. "But then I went to Bryn Mawr and I had these wonderful teachers who taught me to think for myself. And, as I grew up, I started to see things differently than my father."

Later in life she learned about, "Coming To The Table," a program that brings together descendants of enslavers and the descendants of people they enslaved. 

"When I heard about this I thought, 'Well, I wonder if my family enslaved people?'" Kilby recalled. "My family had never talked about it, so I did some research, and I determined very quickly that they did and I found Betty."

She would eventually discover Betty's book, and after reading it, she knew she had to reach out.

"I really wanted to meet her," Kilby said. "I wanted to meet this person that had at 14 been able to defy the powers-that-be to integrate her school."

On Martin Luther King Jr Day in 2007, she wrote Baldwin an email. 

"I was excited because all of a sudden here's this white Kilby who is reaching out to me,"  Baldwin said. "And then she quoted Dr. Martin Luther King. She had me, the minute she said, 'We, as daughters of former slave and slave owners, perhaps we can sit down at the table of brotherhood.' That got me."

Baldwin would respond a few weeks later, with the subject line: "Hello cousin."

"It was something that I have known all along that we were connected and we were connected by blood," said Betty.

A DNA test would prove it to be true led them to writing their book, "Cousins: Connected Through Slavery."

Two women--one white, one black--tied together by history on a journey towards racial reconciliation.

"Our nation is divided at this point," Baldwin said. "If you look at the relationship that Phoebe and I have, started with generations of being divided, and we've come together. .... If we can do it, you can do it and even Dr. Martin Luther King talked about, after all the fighting, that we must create the beloved community based on truth, reconciliation and love."

Baldwin and Kilby are speaking in Baltimore on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at The Church of the Redeemer, located at 5063 N. Charles St.

For more information, call 410-435-7333.