National Day of Racial Healing event “geared toward progress” and creating equitable systems
W. K. Kellogg Foundation President and CEO LaJune Montgomery Tabron says racial healing is needed to achieve racial equity.
The W. K. Kellogg Foundation has hosted its annual Day of Racial Healing for six years.
The foundation’s president and CEO, LaJune Montgomery Tabron says the event follows the Martin Luther King holiday so the civil rights leader’s life of service can be used to inspire action.
Tabron says racial healing is needed for racial equity.
Through healing you can achieve racial equity and create systems that provide equitable opportunities for all. Healing is about reconnecting with people – connecting with someone in a space where your background, your story is told.” LaJune Montgomery Tabron, W. K. Kellogg Foundation
“Through healing you can achieve racial equity and create systems that provide equitable opportunities for all,” She says. “Healing is about reconnecting with people – connecting with someone in a space where your background, your story is told.”
Through these conversations, Tabron says, people connect at a deeper level and begin to understand each other’s pain and trauma.
She says she’s been in healing spaces where participants didn’t want to participate, share or listen.
“When this healing process is conducted properly, people find that there’s space for that,” Tabron says.
“There’s actually a space where you can be heard, but you have to also pause and listen to others. So I’ve been in these spaces where people come ready to fight and they leave transformed.”
This year’s event is hosted by broadcast journalist Soledad O’Brien and features discussions with actress Julissa Calderon, author and activist Heather McGhee and Detroit Director of Arts and Culture and former Detroit Free Press Columnist Rochelle Riley.
People who have received grants to use the foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation process in their own communities across the country will also be recognized.
“In the last few years, what we’ve seen is not the affirmation of humanity,” Tabron says. “We want people to know how to pause and listen and have a conversation that is geared toward progress and how do we move forward in this future together.”
The National Day of Racial Healing Event is at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18 .
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