This article focuses on the development of the Transforming Community Project, which draws staff, students, and faculty into discussing the history of race at Emory University and in the United States. The project's creation followed a difficult year of racial strife and suspicion at Emory that was unprecedented in its recent history. The strain generated by these events erupted into a host of fiery debates across the campus, revealing deep divisions regarding the responsibility of the university to address such incidents. However, over ensuing months, the university attempted to ease the tension through different tactics including the expansion of the Transforming Community Project, initially conceived of as a college-wide affair, to include the entire university system.