Through music, spoken word, improv storytelling, arts & crafts, we'll showcase the power and potential of uniting in friendship across race and culture. It's more than just an event. It's an expression of an idea that against the odds of the differences and circumstances that divide us, together we are more than the sum of our parts.
Organizers: The Montclair History Center, the Montclair Baha’i Faith Community, The Mark, Inc., St. Mark’s United Episcopal Church
The History of Montclair Race Amity Day
Race Amity Day is recognized and celebrated in communities across the country and at a state level in Massachusetts and South Carolina. In 2019, at the request of the Montclair Baha'i Faith Community the Montclair Town Council issued a Proclamation that names the 2nd Sunday in June as Race Amity Day in Montclair.
In 2021, the first Montclair Race Amity Day event took place in Nishuane Park by the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. monument. Stories were told from U.S. and Montclair history about people of different races forging friendship and working together for equity, social justice and race unity. Lasting connections were made. Since then, a small interracial, intergenerational group of like-minded people have met monthly to forge friendships, and to undertake collaborative efforts in the spirit of race amity. That group has become the Montclair Race Amity Initiative.
The Race Amity Initiative seeks to foster cross-racial and cross-cultural friendships by creating spaces to share our stories, by serving the community, and by learning from each other how to increase access, equity, social just and unity in our neighbhorhoods and communities.