ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tuesday after Martin Luther King Jr. Day is recognized as the National Day of Racial Healing.

For people in the St. Petersburg area, it’s a day being spent healing using the arts. 

The Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center hosted their 8th annual Racial Healing event at Stetson University College of Law. This year it’s called The HEART of Racial Equity. The Well for Life in St. Petersburg also served as a co-presenting organization for the event.

Dallas Jackson is one of the artists featured. His drawings and paintings focus on Black people from the Emancipation proclamation all the way to the Civil Rights movement. For the pieces featured at the event, he said he wanted them to symbolize healing and survival.

“What I try to capture in my work is that while we look at trauma and that’s very true and it’s very real, generationally, multi generationally. But what I have examined was the resiliency through those trials,” he said.

Jackson and a number of other artists had their work on display to promote dialog, foster understanding and inspire action.

Attorney, professor and advocate, Judith Scully with the St. Petersburg Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center said this event is meant to show how important the day is. Before the event kicked off, she read from the proclamation presented by the City of St. Petersburg, recognizing the National Day of Racial Healing.

“It is always the day after Mr. Luther King Day. And it is meant to really bring the community together to focus on racial equity issues and to help build relationships that will make it possible for us to have sustainable change around racial justice and racial equity issues,” Scully said.

For Scully, art says what we can’t say. That’s why they’re using artists like Jackson along with a panel discussion to discuss ways people can heal when it comes to race and racism. It’s what Scully said impacts everyday people.