In the 1960s, the Temple established nine residential care facilities for the elderly and six homes for foster children in the Redwood Valley. Peoples Temple / Jonestown Gallery/flickr

Before the tragedy at Jonestown, the people of Peoples Temple had a dream

Throughout the movement’s history, African Americans and whites lived, worked and protested side-by-side. It was one of the few long-term experiments in American interracial communalism.
We’ll say someone’s brainwashed only when we disagree with their beliefs or actions. lolloj/Shutterstock.com

The brainwashing myth

Forty years ago, Rebecca Moore’s two sisters helped plan the Jonestown massacre. But she refuses to say they were brainwashed, arguing that it prevents us from truly understanding their behavior.

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