2022 National Day of Racial Healing: January 18

2022 National Day of Racial Healing

To mark the sixth annual National Day of Racial Healing (NDORH) on January 18, AAC&U calls on colleges and universities across the country to engage in activities, events, or strategies that promote healing and foster engagement around the issues of racism, bias, inequity, and injustice in our society. It is an opportunity for people and organizations to come together in their common humanity and take collective action to create a more just and equitable world.

In partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) effort—a national and community-based process to plan for and bring about transformational and sustainable change, and to address the historical and contemporary effects of racism, AAC&U works with higher education institutions across the country to develop self-sustaining, community-integrated TRHT Campus Centers. Organized around the five pillars of the TRHT framework—narrative change, racial healing and relationship building, separation, law, and economy—the centers seek to prepare the next generation of leaders to confront racism and to dismantle the belief in a hierarchy of human value.

TRHT Racial Healing Circles

The TRHT framework, while informed by the well-recognized Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRH) model, is a unique process designed to reflect, embrace, and address the unprecedented diversity and unparalleled racialized history of the United States.

Click here to learn more about Racial Healing Circles.

    Fostering racial and social justice is central to AAC&U’s mission of advancing liberal education, quality, and equity in service to democracy. All institutions of higher education must embrace the public purpose of higher education by addressing issues of moral and civic responsibility. Identifying the ways in which structural racism is perpetuated and eliminating the belief in a hierarchy of human value are integral to the civic dimensions of liberal education as a force for public good.
    / Lynn Pasquerella, AAC&U President

    Participate in the National Day of Racial Healing

    We encourage colleges and universities to plan and promote NDORH activities unique to each institution’s mission and context. Discover what some TRHT Campus Centers are doing to promote NDORH on January 18.

    • Alamo's National Day of Racial Healing event on January 28, 2022, from 9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. CT, will introduce the Alamo Colleges community to their plans for racial healing activities across all 5 Colleges and the District Support Offices. Racial Healing Circle facilitator Mee Moua and Alamo's Chief DEI Officer, Dr. Eric Castillo, will discuss the practice of racial healing circles and how they can impact our relationships with each other. Chancellor Flores and President Robert Vela will give welcome remarks, and there will be a special performance by San Antonio poet laureate Andrea Vocab Sanderson. In addition, plans for racial healing circles across the district will be announced.

    • Andrews University will help celebrate and recognize this year's Martin Luther King Jr. Day and National Day of Racial Healing with "I Have a Dream 2022: The Fierce Urgency of Now," a University Forum on Thursday, January 13, at 11:30 a.m. ET in Pioneer Memorial Church, and two community service projects that will focus on water distribution in Benton Harbor and a "Bags of Love Sewing Bee" project for area foster children in Berrien Springs on Monday, January 17.

      Thursday's University Forum will be rebroadcasted Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 17, at 11:30 a.m. ET on the Andrews University Facebook page.

      For more details on these Martin Luther King Jr. Day events, including how and when to participate in the January 17 community service events, click here!

    • Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Week at Austin Community College is January 17 - 21. Students, faculty, staff, and community partners are all co-creators in the Center’s learning experiences, which include workshops, film screenings, and racial healing circles. Events are held in more than a dozen locations around the region, including public libraries, public schools, community centers, city parks, recreation facilities, and ACC campuses. Click here for a full list of events.

    • The Bethel College (BC) TRHT Campus Center will host two public events for the National Day of Racial Healing:

      • On Monday, January 17, Jasmyn Elise Story will join us as the 2022 Martin Luther King Jr. Day guest speaker at 7:00pm CT in BC's historic Memorial Hall. Jasmyn is an international Restorative Justice facilitator, Doula, and the founder of The People's Coalition and Freedom Farm Azul.
      • On Tuesday, January 18, BC will host a public screening of the Kellogg Foundation's 2022 National Day of Racial Healing Virtual Event at 2:00pm CT in BC's historic Memorial Hall.

    • Longing for Mayberry: How Cultural Ideals Serve as Weapons of Exclusion

      Tuesday, January 18, 2022 - 4:00pm CT [Free virtual event, Register Now!]

      Historically, talk of an ideal community includes stated or unstated references to ideal neighbors, ideal people for an ideal community. Such talk includes appeals to nostalgia, as seen in the fictional idyllic 1960s television town of Mayberry. The ideals look innocent on the surface, but they are arranged according to a cultural template that actually gives license to exclude and harm people who do not resemble the template. Reggie Williams is a Professor of Christian ethics at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. He works at the intersection of black theology, blackness studies, aesthetics, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer studies. As part of the event, attendees will be able to register for a Racial Healing Circle or Affinity Group Sharing.

    • Hamline University will be celebrating in combination the National Day of Racial Healing (NDORH) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s holiday. The theme is "Building and Becoming the Beloved Community," which will highlight the pillars of Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation work, as well as the life and legacy of Dr. King's life, leadership, and pursuit of racial & social justice. The program will include remarks from Hamline's President Fayneese Miller, reflections from faculty, staff, and student leadership, a charge to the University community delivered by the President of the Black Student Collective, and musical selections from nationally award-winning special guests. The event is free and open to ALL community members.

    • In recognition of the 2022 National Day of Racial Healing, Hope College's Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center will host a Racial Healing Circle that will bring together members of the campus community to engage in the sharing of stories, relationship building, and continue to work toward narrative change in their community.

    • Loyola Marymount University (LMU) will be hosting a virtual Rx Racial Healing Circle (which are called Story Circles at LMU) for LMU community members (faculty, staff, students) where participants will also meet their new VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The circle will provide an opportunity for community members to connect across constituencies and to deepen their relationships with each other on a human level across all lines of difference. This event will also raise awareness across campus about the new Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Center and will provide an opportunity to announce the upcoming TRHT Center Alliance launch event in February.

    • Unmasking the Truth: National Day of Racial Healing at Marymount University

      Marymount University (MU) will host a series of events to motivate reflection and action for the 2022 National Day of Racial Healing:

      • Unmasking the Truth: MU Ministry and Spiritual life will host an Interfaith Prayer Service offering their campus community an opportunity to reflect on the sin of racism and the ways in which we can love one another better on January 18 at 5:00pm via Zoom.
      • Racial Climate & MU: Ministry and Spiritual Life, Student Counseling Services, and the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Committee will co-host a Virtual Support Space providing a protected space to speak openly, listen, and reflect on January 18th at 6:00pm via Zoom.
      • MLK Day of Service: MU will organize a supply drive for Bridges to Independence, a nonprofit that structurally supports families out of homelessness on Monday, January 17. This supply drive will be co-sponsored by the Saints’ Center for Service in partnership with Volunteer Arlington. Click here for a full listing of volunteer opportunities.
      • What Is YOUR Story?: In partnership with the MU library, MU will create a display of new equity, justice, and inclusion-themed books and prompt members of the MU community to share their personal stories through a QR-coded survey.

    • The 11 O’clock Hour

      Martin Luther King Jr. once said that “11 am on Sunday morning is the most segregated day in America.” On January 18, 2022, Mercer County Community College will host its first Day of Racial Healing and Transformation. They invite members of the Inter-Faith community to join them in a conversation around racial healing in religion and faith systems. What responsibility do faith and spirituality hold in racial healing conversations? How can we empower spiritual communities to bridge historically upheld racial divides? Click here to attend the event via Zoom, beginning at 6:00pm ET.

    • On January 18, 2022, Middlesex Community College (MCC) will host two programs to introduce the MCC Center for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation to their internal college community and community partners:

      • MCC's internal program will engage participants in a virtual Racial Healing Circle program.
      • The community partners program will be in person; they will learn about Middlesex Community College’s center and the practice of racial healing circles. Together they will begin to engage in racial healing as an ongoing process to build deeper collective capacity toward racial equity and justice in relationships, structures, policy, and practice.

    • The OSU-Tulsa TRHT Campus Center will host a virtual panel discussion from 12:00-1:00pm CT on Facebook Live, discussing the importance of the National Day of Racial Healing and its relation to the Tulsa community. In addition, guided tours of the local museum, Greenwood Rising, will also be offered at 10:00am CT and again at 3:00pm CT. The morning and afternoon tours will be followed by a discussion of the museum's content and its importance in our community.

    • On February 16 and 17—and in culmination of The Kinsey Collection’s exhibit of African American Art and History’s grand opening at Pepperdine University’s Weisman Museum of Art (which represents truth)—Pepperdine will host the dynamic speaking duo Will Ford and Matt Lockett, authors of The Dream King. They will share their compelling story, a transformational journey to racial healing.

    • In partnership with Campus Compact of Oregon and other area colleges and universities, Portland Community College will recognize this year’s NDORH through a virtual racial justice teach-in on Saturday, January 22, from 10:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. PST honoring the legacy and work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

    • Prince George’s Community College, in partnership with the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System, will recognize the National Day of Racial Healing with the grand opening of their Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Campus Center – a center that will promote transformational and sustainable change at the college and in the community. The program will feature a keynote speaker, Dr. Tia Brown McNair, who will present on the topic “Advancing Racial Equity Through Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers.”

    • Queensborough Community College will officially launch its TRHT Campus Center on the National Day of Racial Healing. As part of the launch, Queensborough's TRHT website will go live, and the Center will announce the names of their new Racial Healing Circle facilitators and share programming scheduled for the spring with the campus community.

    • Healing in Action: Impact and Integration

      Beginning January 18 - 25, 2022, the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Center at Rutgers University – Newark (RU-N) will commemorate the 6th Annual National Day of Racial Healing (NDORH) by requesting and hosting programs, activities, workshops, art exhibitions, and racial healing circles from non-profit organizations, municipalities, corporations, and individuals throughout the city of Newark, the Rutgers University system, and the state of New Jersey highlighting the importance of Healing in Action: Impact and Integration. The definition of healing is the process of making or becoming sound or healthy again. Healing is a form of action, and taking action helps us heal. How do we take action to make our communities, institutions, and the residents of New Jersey whole in relation to equity and equality for all?

      One of the major sponsors for this event is the Creating Change Network (CCN). The Creating Change Network, a program hosted by NJ Theater Alliance and ArtPride Jersey, aims to build a more equitable, just, and anti-racist community in NJ, has partnered with the TRHT Center at RU-N to curate a line-up of arts events celebrating the National Day of Racial Healing. The CCN submitted a call of participation with funding to the NJ art community. Sixteen arts organizations and individuals are scheduled to participate in the week-long events. The co-chairs for the CCN NDORH committee are Donna Walker-Kuhne, Senior Advisor, Community Engagement, NJPAC, and Eric Nagel, Deputy Director, NJ Theater Alliance. Click here for a list of activities and events.

    • One of Seton Hall’s TRHT Team members, Dr. Kelly Harris, invited Dr. Stephanie James Harris, Executive Director of the Amistad Commission for the New Jersey Department of Education as their keynote speaker. They will discuss the need for inclusive educational curricula and the infusion of African-American content in K-12 public schools, followed by a Q&A for further discussion. In addition, they asked the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences to give a welcome address to the audience. They will also have a few faculty members from various departments within the University discuss reconciliation and racial healing. In addition, they will include a segment on the University’s recently developed Bias Education Support Team (BEST).

    • In recognition of the National Day of Racial Healing, the TRHT Center at State University of New York (SUNY) at Plattsburgh will host a community viewing event of the NDORH national broadcast. As part of the event, speakers from community partners will share the importance of racial healing and understanding our history, including Jacqueline Madison, President of the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association (NCUGRHA). The NCUGRHA researches, preserves, and interprets the history of the Underground Railroad, slavery, and abolition along the Upper Hudson River-Champlain and Canal-Lake Champlain corridor of northeastern New York. We will pause the broadcast to engage the participants in conversations to build relationships and promote racial healing. Teacher candidates from the SUNY Plattsburgh Childhood Education program will wrap up the event with a children’s story time for those in attendance with young children. The TRHT Center and SUNY Plattsburgh will use its social media platforms and community partners to create awareness and inspire campus and community participation in the NDORH national broadcast.

    • Truth Talk: Creating a New Normal is a panel discussion on January 20, 2021, from 1:30 – 3:00pm ET at the USF St. Petersburg Campus’s Student Life Center in room 2100 to explore how COVID-19 has deeply revealed the racial inequities in our current society. The event will highlight how “normal” will never be achieved again for people of color and discuss how society can restructure and offer proper space for people of color to recover mentally, financially, physically, and more. Panelists will include three higher education professionals and two students from the SPHERE Racial Justice Fellowship Program who will discuss how we create a new sense of normalcy for people of color and how that normalcy might look; and how we eradicate the thinking of getting back to a pre-pandemic world and moving forward with a new normal that doesn’t tax and/or cause suffering to people of color. Panelists will examine these concepts through the lenses of education, community relationships, COVID-19, and mental health. Truth Talk: Creating a New Normal is a space looking to cultivate a community while providing some understanding and insight into how we move forward as a community.

    • The IDEALS Institute at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville plans to lead a campus-focused virtual session, Race in the South, from 4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. CT on January 18, 2022. Race in the South is an interactive facilitated learning opportunity in which participants will explore a snapshot of the history of racial inequities in the Southern US region and share collective learning and personal narratives related to this history. Click here to register for the event.

    • Cincinnati’s National Day of Racial Healing (CNDORH), January 18, 2022, is a virtual event that offers individuals, organizations, and communities across the country, but primarily in the Greater Cincinnati region, an opportunity to come together to take collective action for a more just and equitable society. The 2022 CNDORH celebration will incorporate a host of virtual events including opportunities to engage in Racial Healing Circles, a keynote by Heather McGhee (The Sum of Us), panel presentations with esteemed local and national guests, meditation and yoga, and a film screening on truth and reconciliation in Cincinnati! Click here for event registration and more information.

    • On January 18, 2022, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the sixth annual National Day of Racial Healing, UH Hilo is pleased to present Freedom & Colonization: The Impact of Leadership: Queen Liliʻuokalani and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by Dr. Val Kalei Kanuha. Time will be allotted for further discussion following the presentation.

      Dr. Kanuha was born and raised in a rural town in Hawaiʻi in the 1950s. She is the daughter of a Native Hawaiian father and Nisei mother. Dr. Kanuha considers herself a critical, indigenous, feminist, activist-practitioner scholar with a focus on gender violence against women and children, and the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender and sexual identity. For the past 45 years, she has worked as a community-based researcher and consultant with organizations in Hawaiʻi and the continental U.S., and lectures widely on violence against women and social justice issues.

      This event is sponsored by UH Hilo's Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center: Waiolama, the Chancellorʻs Committee for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and the Office of Equal Opportunity.

    Rx Racial Healing: A Guide to Embracing Our Humanity

    New Publication - Coming Soon!

    As part of the NDORH, TRHT Campus Centers across the country are hosting virtual and in-person events to promote racial healing on their campuses and in their surrounding communities. In tandem with the annual event hosted by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Gail Christopher’s book Rx Racial Healing: A Guide to Embracing our Humanitywill be released on January 18, 2022.