About Dialogue on Race
Dialogue on Race is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the elimination of racism through education, action, and transformation. Founded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and operating across the United States, the organization facilitates structured, facilitated conversations about race for individuals, communities, and organizations ready to move beyond surface-level diversity efforts.
Why Dialogue on Race Exists
Racism doesn't end through silence, good intentions, or one-time training sessions. It ends when people understand how it was built, how it operates inside institutions, and what it actually takes to dismantle it.
Dialogue on Race was created to give people the language, the space, and the structured process to have that conversation honestly across differences, without fear, and with real educational grounding.
That work began in Baton Rouge in 1994, when a community town meeting asked a simple but urgent question: What color is community? The answer led to the creation of the Dialogue on Race Original Series — a structured, six-session program grounded in scholarship and led by trained facilitators. In 2008, the series received a national Racial Justice Award from the YWCA of the USA. In 2011, Dialogue on Race Louisiana was chartered as an independent nonprofit.
Today, the program reaches participants in states across the country and has been selected by organizations including the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce as a trusted partner for racial dialogue and healing.
Maxine Crump
Founder & President/CEO
Maxine Crump grew up in Maringouin, Louisiana, under Jim Crow and spent her career breaking barriers as the first African American woman DJ in Baton Rouge, the first Black reporter at WAFB-TV, and in 1964, the first African American woman to live on LSU's campus.
She created the Dialogue on Race series over 30 years ago because she understood what most diversity efforts miss: people don't need to be lectured about racism. They need a structured, honest space to understand it and each other.
In 2016, Crump became a central figure in national coverage of the 1838 Georgetown University slave sale when she was identified as a descendant of Cornelius Hawkins, one of the 272 enslaved people sold by Jesuit priests to Louisiana plantation owners. The New York Times, Washington Post, and Chronicle of Higher Education all featured her story. She serves on the board of the GU272 Descendants Association.
Her awards include the 2013 Powell-Reznokoff Humanitarian Award, the 2022 Emerge Volunteer Activist Award, the 2023 Baton Rouge Area Foundation Barton Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management, and the 2026 Trailblazing Women of Baton Rouge recognition from Cumulus Media.
Dialogue on Race Mission and Vision
Mission Dialogue on Race is dedicated to the elimination of racism through education, action, and transformation.
Vision A community where everyone knows that all institutional opportunities and access are fully available to them regardless of their color.
Dialogue on Race: In the Press
The New York Times · Washington Post · The Chronicle of Higher Education · The Advocate · NOLA.com · 225 Magazine · WAFB · WRKF NPR · PBS Newsmakers · LSU News