Photos: For a Third Year, Djimon Hounsou’s Race Series Brings Black History to the Fore

The pre-race event, called Time to Heal, was a big part of this "moment of reflection." The community-driven event occurred at the Main Street Station in Shockoe Bottom, once the second-largest slave market in America. It included a Yoruba-influenced libation ceremony, to honor the dead and pay tribute to the memory of enslaved people, led by the Elegba Folklore Society, as well as a meditation and performances by Drums No Guns, The Well Collective and the Community Healing Network.

For Hounsou, the event is the chance to bring together people in healing and reconciliation, while sharing knowledge about events that once took place in the area. As he toldOkayAfrica, “I thought, if we could [come together] in a place where some of our ancestors were lynched, if we come together like that regularly, we'll change the course of what took place there."

Future runs are being planned for two other locations, Liverpool in the U.K. and Ouidah, in Hounsou’s home country. Each city features artist Stephen Broadbent’s Reconciliation Triangle, which, when connected, forms the Triangle of Hope — promoting forgiveness through acknowledgment and using reconciliation and justice to shape a new future.