The nation's leading social justice and civil rights advocates pledged last Thursday at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's (WKKF) America Healing grantee conference to work together for racial healing and racial equity across the country. They were optimistic that as a united force they can help improve life outcomes for vulnerable children and communities across the country.

Leaders of diverse organizations representing African Americans, Latinos, Asian American and Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and all low-income communities across the U.S. acknowledged they face obstacles ranging from a conservative-leaning Supreme Court to new laws aimed at suppressing the minority vote. Speaking at a lunchtime plenary session at the gathering of nearly 500 scholars, advocates and community leaders, they declared it was time to look past the many impediments and focus on making progress together.

Benjamin Jealous, executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), cited examples noting that the NAACP had worked with the Tea Party to get 12 progressive criminal justice reform bills signed by Texas Governor William Perry and that Connecticut had enacted a law abolishing the death penalty in the state. He said, "There are issues out there - and especially within criminal justice - where we can actually get consensus between the left and the right and get great things done in this moment that'll drive down the incarceration rate and reform draconian sentences."

In addition to Jealous, other panelists included Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League; Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza; Jacqueline Johnson Pata, executive director of National Congress of American Indians; Rinku Sen, executive director of the Applied Research Center; Kathleen Ko, president and CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum; Judith Browne-Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project; Ralph Everett, president and CEO of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies; and Philip Tegeler, president and executive director of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council.

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Everett noted another sign of progress. In 1970, when the Joint Center opened, he said there were less than 1,500 black elected officials in the country. Today, there are more than 11,000.

"As part of our Place Matters program funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, we are about to release a study that shows how your zip code determines how long you live. In fact, the release will show a 25 to 30 year difference in some cases," said Everett.

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