Journey to Reconciliation

Journey to Reconciliation. . “Unfortunately, we know more about the people who drove the Chinese out of Tacoma than we know about the Chinese themselves. So we can only imagine what those 200 Chinese people felt as they boarded the train, or what 500 other Chinese residents must have felt in the days before the expulsion, as they fled from this city. And saddest of all, we can only imagine who this city might be different if the descendants of those Chinese were part of this community. Our imagination may be an imperfect substitute for a real historical record. But the ability to imagine the pain, the fear, and the anguish that those Chinese felt is truly an important step on the road to reconciliation.” , Governor Gary Locke, May 16, 1997, In 1982, when Dr. David and Mrs. Signy Murdoch moved to Tacoma and learned of the expulsion, they coordinated with city and state officials, as well as community activists, to initiate a process of reconciliation, in hopes of healing the city of Tacoma from this "most reprehensible occurrence.", Their collaborative efforts evolved into the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation (CRPF). CRPF, founded as a non-profit corporation in 1994, is dedicated to promoting peace, harmony, and understanding in Tacoma's multi-cultural community, and providing a historical memory and healing of the tragic expulsion of the Chinese people from the city of Tacoma in 1885.