The time is ripe for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Ferguson, Missouri to launch a process of restoring justice and healing from the long history of violence and oppression that African Americans continue to face in their daily lives.

Attorney and social justice advocate Fania Davis, Ph.D., makes the case in her recent article (http://bit.ly/1wtTpAo) that a Ferguson Truth and Reconciliation Commission, modeled after Archbishop Desmond Tutu's 1994 commission in South Africa , could "put us on the path of a new future based on more equitable structures and with relationships founded on mutual recognition and respect."

We call on President Obama, Governor Jay Nixon, and the people of St. Louis County, Missouri, to immediately establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to lead the country in systemic reforms to end racial oppression and begin to heal the deep scars of slavery and racism including Jim Crow, lynching, voter suppression, the pipeline of racial minorities into prisons, and the disproportionate harassment and killings of black men by the police.