Reviewer M.W. Merritt Interviews La June Montgomery Tabron, Author of How We Heal
“For all of us, and I do mean all of us, finding a path toward healing is essential to forging lasting connections across our differences, recognizing our common humanity, and building a country and world where all children can thrive.’’ —La June Montgomery Tabron
Lots of published authors have day jobs but you’d be hard pressed to find one with more responsibility than La June Montgomery Tabron: President and CEO of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the nation’s seventh largest private charitable foundation with nearly $500 million in annual giving from a total asset fund of $8.8 billion. But what makes WKKF extra special is their commitment to the needs of children (equitable food systems, healthcare, early education), along with a corresponding goal to be the most effective antiracist organization in the US. Noble stuff, and La June is the driving force.
As part of her work to end racism, La June found time to pen How We Heal: A Journey toward Truth, Racial Healing, and Community Transformation From the Inside Out. In a January/February review for Foreword, M.W. Merritt called the book “an enlightening exploration of ongoing racial divides with recommendations for creating a better future,” and we knew we had the ingredients for a compelling conversation.
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How We Heal is all about how you and many others at the W. K. Kellogg foundation helped to create this new framework to overcome racial divides. Since then, it’s spread all over the country and the world, and there’s obviously going to be changes over time. What do you think is the future of racial healing? How do you think this practice will grow?
We cannot address our nation’s division—and all of the crises it aggravates—if we don’t bridge the empathy gap that keeps us apart first. For all of us, and I do mean all of us, finding a path toward healing is essential to forging lasting connections across our differences, recognizing our common humanity, and building a country and world where all children can thrive. We all share an interest in moving from divided and conquered to connected and growing.
For this method to work, it requires space—physical space to gather as a community—and emotional space to trust each other. Post election, what are your thoughts on how we can do this in our communities?
This is exactly why I wrote my new book, How We Heal: to introduce a proven model for change and to offer people the tools to put that model into practice. What I’ve seen is that people are yearning to heal—they’re hungry for something different and better—but they don’t know where to start. From my own journey, I’ve learned that the first step can be as simple as a conversation—as easy as engaging with your own story, the stories we share, and the story we can write together.
How We Heal is full of amazing stories of healing and action, and I found the stories from the start of the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation program (TRHT) especially moving. Have any new projects happened since the book came out?
The work of building trust and meaningful relationships is never finished—and I am especially excited about a couple of new initiatives.
The first is the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Common Ground Campaign, which will build on the momentum of our National Day of Racial Healing. This year-round effort encourages people across the country to reflect on their personal experiences—helping to foster the open, honest conversations we need to better understand our shared values and shared humanity.
The second project is a multimedia initiative we’re launching in February to highlight the inspirational conversations we helped facilitate for youth from different backgrounds in Jackson, Mississippi, last spring. Through podcasts, social reels, long-form stories, and more, Common Good will show how these young people in the South were able to talk openly about racial equity and racial healing, listen to and learn from others’ stories, and ultimately develop mutual understanding across their differences.
And the third is Racial Equity 2030, an ongoing commitment that will prompt new reflections about how healing work can connect global systems. In honor of our 90th anniversary, we launched this initiative back in 2020 with a $90 million investment to fund bold solutions that will create a more racially equitable future for children around the world. In 2021, we awarded ten finalists with $1 million each for planning and capacity-building support, and in 2022, we named five awardees to receive a combined $80 million until 2030. I’m looking forward to visiting Brazil later this year to see how the SETA Project—one of our long-term awardees—is realizing its vision of the world’s first anti-racist education system.
You’ve achieved many amazing things but you’re new to being an author, with How We Heal and Our Differences Make Us Stronger being your first books. What was the process of creating How We Heal like and what stood out about writing?
I was reluctant to write a book—much less two at the same time—but in the process of revisiting my own journey, I realized that my life has been defined by three interrelated stories: The story of my life; the story of healing, in my life and the institution that I’m privileged to lead; and a story about possibility and what can happen when we embrace our shared fate and seek mutual understanding, mutual respect, and mutual recognition. What I realized is, through healing, we can transform ourselves, our communities, and ultimately, our nation and world.
Did you learn anything new in the process of writing How We Heal, either about our history or your own?
To be honest with you, I found the process cathartic, which I did not entirely expect. As you know, my memoir begins with my reflection on a childhood trauma that I had all but forgotten: losing contact with my best friend and next-door neighbor, Jenefer. Jenefer and I were very close, but then, one day, she and her family moved away—and I never saw her again. As an adult, I now know they left because of white flight, or the exodus of white families from racially-diverse, urban centers to predominantly-White suburban neighborhoods. But as a five- or six-year-old, I had no way of understanding why I was suddenly being separated from my best friend. Revisiting this early chapter of my own life, among others, helped me better understand that this was an experience from which I needed to heal—the kind of experience all of us would benefit from engaging with in our own lives.
I really enjoyed reading How We Heal in part because of your writing style. You manage to explain complex topics clearly and also weave them into an engaging story. How much of this comes from your work and how much comes from other sources?
My story is a Detroit story and an American story—so while How We Heal is based on my own memories and experiences, it weaves those memories together with our shared memories and experiences, substantiated through a research process that resulted in almost 500 footnotes. I’m proud of how the book captures three interconnected stories: my story, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s story, and the story of what healing makes possible, inside and out.
M. W. Merritt
