Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey joined community leaders Tuesday to celebrate the National Day of Racial Healing.

The day — officially recognized by the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County — is observed annually on the Tuesday after Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“We are celebrating the diverse ethnicity, the diverse racial grouping that we have here in the great city of Pittsburgh,” said Cathy Sigmund of the North Side Christian Health Center and ACTS Institute of the Allegheny Center Alliance Church, where the event recognizing the day was hosted.

The National Day of Racial Healing was established by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 2016 and is meant to be a call for communities to join together to combat racism and discrimination.

Benedict Killang, program manager at Allegheny County Department of Human Services, presented a proclamation from Allegheny County. Gainey presented a proclamation from Pittsburgh and urged city residents to use it as an opportunity to “learn each other and love each other.”

Gainey said there is a growing racial divide in the country and in Pittsburgh, something he promised during his mayoral campaign to combat.

“One of the greatest things in the world is diversity. I couldn’t imagine a world where we’re all alike, but I love a world where everybody comes from different backgrounds and different perspectives,” Gainey said.

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