This Congolive episode focused on exploring the intersection between the African American community in the US and the Congo. It discussed the historical ties that exist with black missionaries who came to the Congo in the late 1800s, 30 years after the Emancipation proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. It also delved into the current state of black Americans with the Black Lives Matter movement and their contribution to peace and stability in the Congo.

Our guest was the Rev. Dr. Joan R. Harrell, a Public Theologian and Strategic External Communications Consultant at the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care at Tuskegee University.

Her scholarship explores the intersecting of media, public health, religion, xenophobia, racism, sexism, classism and the history of the African American Church. She is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Healthcare, Science and the Humanities, founder of www.RacismContradictsChristianity.com and award winning broadcast journalist and documentary producer.

She also worked as the Director of Public Communications for Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago where she researched, created, wrote and developed multimedia communications.

Within this context, she became a proactive member of the Friends of the Congo Movement; collaborated with Friends of the Congo and the DuSable Museum of Chicago to feature the forum, “Crisis in the Congo” to educate the public domain about the atrocities impacting children, women, men and families in the Congo.