The extraordinary life of a prominent Black man and the painful deaths of too many other Black Americans over the past year serve as a stark reminder of the conflicting state of race relations in our nation.

Katrina, a 47-year-old Black woman participating in a December 2019 focus group of Black middle-class women in Wichita, summed up her feelings about the violence and inequality that Black people face in the U.S.

Despite the wide-ranging devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly within communities of color, we feel a sense of optimism that we have not felt in over a year.