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Cultural Conversation: A Bridge to Truth and Connection

Opening Dialogue for the Exhibition "To Be Sold"

The conversation will explore how truth-telling and an openness to difficult conversations about our shared history can create new paths toward healing and racial reconciliation.

The African American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARLCC) will host a special Cultural Conversation on the evening of September 6, 2025, to officially open the exhibition "To Be Sold: Enslaved Labor and Slave Trading in the Antebellum South." The launch event is a compelling program that explores how truth-telling and an openness to difficult conversations about our shared history can create new paths toward healing and racial reconciliation.

The conversation features Sen. Mia S. McLeod and Margaret Seidler, two women whose lives and family histories are linked by the painful legacy of slavery and whose relationship demonstrates the possibility of civility and connection across racial lines. In 2020, Margaret, a white Charleston native whose genealogical research revealed a legacy of slave trading in her family, reached out to Mia’s family via their funeral home website. Mia, a trailblazing Black legislator from South Carolina, had just lost her father, her family’s historian, and felt compelled to answer the message. What followed was a transformative phone call between two women who shared a desire to listen, learn, and reckon with the truth. They discovered hidden family stories and confronted the emotional impact of the Mother Emanuel tragedy. Their relationship has become a living example of courage and common ground. 

This program invites audiences to consider how personal history, public memory, and civic dialogue can help us reimagine our shared future.

This program is presented in collaboration with the Partners for Racial Justice and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.

About the Speakers

Sen. Mia McLeod	Margaret Seidler

Mia S. McLeod

Mia McLeod is an eighth-generation South Carolinian and public servant who advocates for justice and equity. As the first woman and African American to represent Senate District 22, and the first Black woman to run for Governor of South Carolina, Mia has worked across party lines to address systemic issues such as healthcare access, education equity, domestic violence, and criminal justice reform. Her leadership has earned national recognition, including the prestigious 2023 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award® alongside her bipartisan Sister Senators. Mia is a Liberty, Diversity, and Education Policy Fellow and a proud mother of two sons. Her family’s funeral business, founded in 1914, plays a key role in her ancestral discovery and reconciliation story.

Margaret Seidler

Margaret Seidler is a retired leadership development consultant, author, and native Charlestonian whose life turned after a late-in-life DNA test revealed distant cousins of African descent. Motivated by their questions, Margaret uncovered three generations of slave traders in her family, including William Payne, who brokered the sale of more than 9,000 human beings. Her meticulous research has led to historical markers in Charleston and the publication of her acclaimed book Payne-ful Business: Charleston’s Journey to Truth. A frequent public speaker and one of 47 contributors in Ukweli: Search for Healing Truth, South Carolina Writers and Poets explore American Racism, Evening Post Books, 2022. Margaret also volunteers at Charleston’s Old Slave Mart Museum, sharing her story of reckoning and repair. Her work uses historical truth as a bridge to understanding, civility, and restorative justice.

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