05/20/2026
The Reconciliation Team at The Church at Stone River invites you to join us for our next Open Table conversation on Thursday, May 21
featuring author Mark Tenhundfeld, whose work explores Alabama’s complicated history of segregation, civil rights, and the ongoing struggle toward justice and reconciliation.
We invite participants to bring a dish to share for our community meal at 6:00 PM before we settle in for an evening of listening, learning, conversation, and reconciliation together.
Mark Tenhundfeld is a native of Mobile, Alabama and a former lawyer and teacher. After obtaining a degree in political science from Yale and a law degree from Vanderbilt, Mark practiced law for twenty-six years in Mobile and Washington, DC before switching careers to teach government and economics at his old high school.
During his teaching career, Mark learned just how little he knew about Alabama’s history. To help others avoid the same fate, he created a course on famous freedom rights cases that started in Alabama. That course eventually grew into his book, State of Segregation: America’s Freedom Rights Struggles as Told by Alabama, recently published by the University of Alabama Press.
Mark and his wife, Dr. Lynda Tenhundfeld, retired in 2023 and moved to Huntsville, Alabama, to be near their two sons, Nathan and Daniel.
This Open Table conversation reflects the Social Principles of The United Methodist Church, calling us not to avoid difficult truths, but to engage them honestly as we pursue beloved community through truth-telling, reconciliation, healing, justice, and courageous conversation.
ALL ARE WELCOME AT THE TABLE