08.21.24
Racial Healing
News

Academy Award-nominated actor Colman Domingo partners for year-round racial healing

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — As part of its enduring commitment to racial healing, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) has launched a partnership with Academy Award-nominated actor Colman Domingo to bring a new voice to its signature National Day of Racial Healing, observed every year on the Tuesday following Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. The partnership advances the foundation’s aim to inspire year-round conversation and action to advance racial healing.

The Kellogg Foundation established the National Day of Racial Healing to honor people and communities nationwide who are working to heal from the effects of racism, especially the inequities within systems that deeply affect children, families and their surrounding community members – food, health, education and the economy.

Racial healing is the “people work” necessary for achieving racial equity. Racial healing is the practice of reflecting on personal experiences, confronting past wrongs and present consequences, and cultivating trustful relationships with the goal of creating solutions to big challenges.

“With the systems that support what children need to thrive now at the forefront of national, election-related conversations, it is essential that we commit to doing the people work of racial healing,” said WKKF President and CEO La June Montgomery Tabron.

As an Afro-Latino, award-winning actor and member of the LGBTQ+ community, Domingo has experienced the power of healing in his own life. He engages in healing pathways as part of his personal journey as well as in his portrayal of characters on screen and stage.  Domingo’s partnership with the Kellogg Foundation aims to encourage people on their own racial healing journey by modeling ways to ignite change, a process that begins with personal reflection and interpersonal dialogue.

“Throughout my life, I’ve experienced many healing moments. I know how transformative they are in shaping how you understand yourself and your relationships with others,” Domingo reflected. “I’m excited about this partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation because building trust between one another is a critical early step in making racial equity a reality for all of us.” 

“Colman Domingo deeply understands the role racial healing plays in the pursuit of racial equity,” said Tabron. “Sharing stories of how race shows up in our personal experiences can help us all better understand what brought us where we are and inspire each of us to embark on a racial healing journey.  We are honored to partner with Colman to advance this timely dialogue for children, families and communities.”

The partnership also highlights online resources to help people to engage in conversations about racial healing both individually and collectively, while working to bring about changes that benefit everyone in every community.

To learn more about this partnership and how communities are engaging in racial healing efforts, visit www.dayofracialhealing.org.

ABOUT THE W.K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal innovator and entrepreneur Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.

The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Michigan, and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special attention is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Battle Creek, Detroit and Grand Rapids in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti.