HOW WE HEAL

In this nonfiction work, a nonprofit executive blends memoir and a vision for societal healing regarding race-related issues.

In 1963, when Tabron was 8 months old, there was a march in her hometown of Detroit, headed by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He shared his vision of Black and white children “join[ing] hands as sisters and brothers,” just as he would months later, when he famously spoke at the March on Washington. Tabron reflects that the minister and activist “was talking about me.” Throughout this book, the author connects her story to important events of the 20th century. As part of the Great Migration, her parents—Herbert and Mary Louise Montgomery—fled Jim Crow Mississippi in search of better opportunities in Detroit. However, their dreams of a northern Promised Land were short lived; Tabron recalls her experiences during the 1967 Detroit Rebellion, an event fueled by decades of discrimination and police brutality. She also writes of losing some of her best friends as white families left the city. Tabron’s story also is one of personal triumph: She joined the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in 1987 and would serve in various leadership roles there before becoming its first female and first Black president and chief executive officer. In this role, she helped to launch the National Day of Racial Healing in 2017, as the foundation committed itself to continuing the King’s work of “truth-telling and solidarity building.” Tabron’s memoir offers a powerful account of success, and its social commentary challenges readers to persist in the fight for equality. Pragmatic in its approach, this useful guidebook provides practical tips on how to effect change on interpersonal and local levels in the pursuit of racial healing. It’s helpfully backed by solid research that’s cited in more than 200 endnotes, and it convincingly demonstrates what the author calls the “fallacy of ‘colorblindness.’” It also effectively argues that King’s vision will never be attained until Americans collectively confront “uncomfortable realities about our history, our society, and our own unconscious beliefs.”

An inspiring story of personal success with valuable commentary on the quest to achieve a more just world.