National Day of Racial Healing

National Day of Racial Healing is on January 19, 2021.  Check out this link to a WebJunction article that includes 9 ways your library and community can recognize the event.  The ALA has put out a Library Action Kit for ideas and activities.  Here is a booklist from the Center for the Study of Multicultural Literature of their best books of 2020.  This blog post by Youth Services Shout Out has a wonderful list about race, justice, kids and libraries.  ​Here is the link to the Heal Our Communities website.

From ALA:
Purpose

1. Find ways to reinforce and honor our common humanity and create space to celebrate the distinct differences that make our communities vibrant.
2. Acknowledge that there are still deep racial divisions in America that must be overcome and healed, and
3. Commit to engaging people from all racial, ethnic, religious and identity groups in genuine efforts to increase understanding, communication, caring and respect for one another.

Join the Community Conversation
​Join us on ALA's social media channels on January 19 for a conversation around the National Day of Racial Healing and add to the conversation using #LibrariesRespond and #NDORH. As a community, we'd like to talk about:

• Has your institution launched any initiatives to address racial inequities in libraries? 
• What actions have you taken to explore your unconscious bias?

If you're looking for ways to get started, consider taking an Implicit Association Test Library workers, what workplace practices have you encountered or engaged in that reinforce inequity?
If you're looking for ways to get started, consider exploring the Race Matters: Organizational Self-Assessment.

Hashtags

• #TRHT
• #NDORH
• #HowWeHeal
• #racialhealing
• #librariesrespond
• #librariestransform

Author

Tara Morissette
​OLA, CSD Communications/Web Editor
Library Assistant, Oregon City Public Library