Fifth Annual National Day of Racial Healing

This year, as we mark the National Day of Racial Healing with honest conversations, insight, music and poetry, voices from across the country are asking: What will it take to heal our country?

On Jan. 19, 2021, WKKF and many grantees, partners and other organizations will host nearly 90 virtual events. Thousands of people will come together in this wide array of programs to foster truth-telling, affirm our common humanity and inspire collective action toward a more just and equitable world.

WKKF’s virtual event on YouTube features essential and timely conversations on righting historical wrongs, employment equity and law and justice, featuring Ta-Nehisi Coates, Yara Shahidi, Camila Cabello, María Hinojosa, John Legend and others. Sign up to receive a link to the program on DayofRacialHealing.org.

On DayofRacialHealing.org, you’ll also find a complete (and growing) list of the unique, meaningful and relevant ways local communities are honoring the day, drawn from local experiential knowledge of what racial healing entails. Here are just a few of the many events:

• In Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Lansing, Michigan, our Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) partners are connecting neighbors through conversations, mixers and local history-focused events.  
• The arts are on full display in TRHT events, including New Orleans-based Ashé Cultural Arts Center’s “In the Tone of Truth” concert and conversation series and Richmond-based Initiative of Change’s multi-media installation.
• Dallas TRHT’s event features Pulitzer prize-winning creator of the 1619 project, Nikole-Hannah Jones.
• Two events featuring cultural healing practices are planned by TRHT Los Angeles, including virtual workshops on ancestral medicine and learning the principles behind powerful change.
• TRHT Selma has two-days of events, including a winter clothing giveaway and online conversations entitled, “Chaos or Community” featuring Rev. Robert Turner of Tulsa and Dr. Bernard Lafayette. 
• The American Institute of Dental Public Health is hosting a virtual discussion about racial equity and healing within their field. 
• Three full days of events are planned in Arkansas, featuring a presentation by Georgetown University professor and New York Times opinion writer, Michael Eric Dyson, as well as events sponsored by the Clinton School of Public Service’s Center on Community Philanthropy.

Everyone can bring racial healing into their homes, communities, places of work and worship. WKKF offers action kits for parents, teachers, business leaders, librarians, faith and spiritual ambassadors and those in the philanthropy sector. Action kits and a conversation guide are also available at DayofRacialHealing.org.