Longtime Foundation partner Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) recently celebrated the launch of the Black Interfaith Project, which will highlight how religious difference can be a bridge for cooperation and collaboration. Supported by a $1 million grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, the effort will bring together Black religious leaders, intellectuals, artists, and activists to examine interfaith efforts in diverse Black spaces.

On February 23, 2022, IFYC co-sponsored “A Celebration of Black Interfaith and Religious Diversity in America” at the White House, at which Second Gentleman of the United States Douglas Emhoff gave the keynote remarks. Emhoff recognized the many contributions of Black interfaith communities and discussed how the values he shares with his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, are rooted in their different faiths.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff lauded the interfaith work of Black religious communities for “saving lives” through distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations and for continuing efforts to get out the vote when he spoke at a midweek Black History Month event.

“Over the past year, Black faith communities have been working as trusted voices in their communities and getting the right facts and information out to their neighbors,” he said in remarks Wednesday (Feb. 23) at an online event co-hosted by the White House and the Black Interfaith Project. “This has led to millions upon millions of folks getting vaccinated.”

As the project of the Interfaith Youth Core launches with aims to convene Black religious leaders across faith lines for conversation and collaboration, Emhoff said his interfaith marriage with Kamala Harris, now the first Black female vice president, followed the discovery that their shared values were rooted in their different faiths.

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