Our paper explores a year-long process of personal and institutional introspection of racial equity and social justice within a midwestern public urban college of education. The initiative occurred following the May 24, 2020, murder of George Floyd, and the ongoing loss of life in Black and Brown communities due to lethal policing and the disproportional impact of COVID. A dialogue among faculty in a pandemic-constrained Zoom setting reflected an acute sense of urgency, personal introspection, and institutional critique. College leadership responded with a proposal to interrogate our teaching and learning towards achieving racial equity and social justice (Banks, 2020) and a year of data collection, self-study, reflection, and plans for action ensued. The objective of the paper is to explore the complexity of racial literacy on the ground as teacher educators engage with each other, their students, and their school partners. Our questions: 1). How did racial equity and social justice thinking, talk, and action reveal tensions and desires among faculty in this particular context? and 2). In what way has that context seeded the ground for changed practices and policies, and how have struggles persisted?