mlk – The Transcript

Time has come to pursue the dream

By Katie Cantrell

Transcript Correspondent

kmcantre@owu.edu

With our nation torn by divisiveness, college students today, more than ever, must embrace courage and be driven by a “fierce urgency” to stand up and speak out for equality for all Americans

That message was the central theme of keynote speaker Korie L. Edwards, an associate professor of sociology at The Ohio State University, at Ohio Wesleyan’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration on Monday.

The Pursuing the Dream event was the beginning of a plan to celebrate MLK’s legacy annually, with multicultural students leading the way, said Juan Armando Rojas Joo, OWU’s associate dean for diversity and inclusion. He welcomed students to the observance, which ran from noon to 1 p.m. on the third floor of Merrick Hall.

The celebration kicked off with a performance by OWU’s Gospel Lyres, singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

Edwards began her speech with one of the most repeated lines of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which he gave on Aug. 28, 1963 in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. before a massive group of civil rights marchers.

“I have a dream that little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers,” King had said.

While Edwards repeated many of King’s quotes, the perplexities in the joining hands line have become the essence of the entire speech, Edwards said.

“Somehow, I have a dream has morphed into simply a call for diversity,” Edwards said.

King began to follow that stirring at age 26, when he became a leader of the Civil Rights Movement in 1955, Edwards said, in conclusion.

“Perhaps today you have a fierce urgency stirring in you that the moment is now,” she said. “My hope is you won’t allow that fire to die, but that you will seize your moment, your fierce urgency in now to speak, to stand, to fight for love and truth.”

OWU junior Aliyah Owens introduced the speaker.

“She speaks in a way that is understandable to everyone, but she presents these complex ideas that you learn so much from in such a way that doesn’t feel overloading and doesn’t feel unreachable,” Owens said.

OWU Juniors Hope Lopez and Mukami Wamalwa along with sophomore Anna duSaire also said they enjoyed Edwards’ speech.

“I thought it was really informative and it explained a lot of things step-by-step, or it like unfolded a lot things that I didn’t really think about critically (before),” Lopez said.

Wamalwa said Edwards explained many concepts well.

“Like especially when it came down to white supremacy and white hegemony and like kind of breaking those down and understanding how one can lead to the other and how they kind of contribute to each other,” Wamalwa said.

The speech helped duSaire put things in context.

“I thought it was really thought provoking,” she said. “It really made me think about things I see on campus and things I’ve experienced in my life and how that relates to our history and how these patterns are still continuing, so I thought it was really good.”

Rojas Joo said his favorite quote was ‘I have a dream.’

“Why? Because I do have a dream. I do have the dream that we can become very inclusive at Ohio Wesleyan,” he said.

OWU’s MLK committee scheduled Edwards a year in advance to secure her as a guest speaker, Rojas Joo said.

Students will be even more involved in planning activities and speakers for future MLK celebrations at OWU.

“We want to integrate some of the Ohio Wesleyan students into the MLK committee,” Rojas Joo said.

MLK: a legacy to remember

By Courtney Dunne, Copy Editor
On Jan. 18, many children enjoyed their days off relaxing at home, while Ohio Wesleyan University was up bright and early to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day at breakfast.

Several local police officers were in attendance. — Several community members as well as local officers were in attendance. Photo courtesy of Courtney Dunne.

Many members of the Delaware community like police officers, local churches and political organizations such as the Delaware Republicans joined the OWU community in recognizing this holiday.

Gregory Moore ’76, an OWU alum, was the guest speaker. “King was committed to fighting racism, militarism and materialism. He deplored war, poverty and prejudice,” said Moore. He continued to speak about issues of race and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

All of the proceeds from the breakfast go to a scholarship fund, which provides a local high school student with funds toward college tuition. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Celebration Committee has been awarding this scholarship for 23 years.

Among the students in attendance at breakfast was OWU student Miranda Anthony ‘18. “This event brought all four corners of the Delaware community together socioeconomically as well as racially,” said Anthony.

Next year Ohio Wesleyan will also have Martin Luther King Jr. Day off to observe his contribution to our society.

Students honor MLK legacy, look to make racism part of the past

On April 4, 1968, African-American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed outside of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee.

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, students and professors organized events throughout the week to continue spreading King’s message of social equality and to bring attention to racial discrimination – an issue that many Ohio Wesleyan University students and faculty members believe is present today.

OWU organizations including Black Men of the Future (BMF) sponsored events in remembrance of MLK.

BMF organized an event in honor of King, which occurred in Hamilton-Williams Campus Center at lunch hour.

“We organize an event every year to commemorate MLK and his contributions to the quest for racial equality,” said senior Lucky Mosola, BMF President.

“…This year we performed an excerpt from MLK’s Letter From Birmingham Jail; ‘I, Too,’ a poem by Langston Hughes, and an original piece by myself about MLK and his Birmingham Campaign.”

Several other events hosted throughout the week were not only for OWU students, but the Delaware community as well.

An annual breakfast was held Monday morning at 8 a.m. in Benes Room B in honor of Dr. King. That evening, a screening of clips from “Freedom Riders” was shown in Beeghly Library’s Bayley Room at 7 p.m.

The “Freedom Riders” screening – about civil rights activists who challenged segregation in interstate busing – was followed by a discussion guided by Dr. Hasan Jeffries, associate professor of history at Ohio State University.

Jeffries showed three clips from the documentary, which was created by PBS as part of its American Experience series.

They involved interviews of those involved, re-enactments of some sequences, and photos and newsreels of the actual events.

Those who went on the 1961 Freedom Rides faced beatings from Ku Klux Klansmen and other white supremacists, sometimes with the approval of local law enforcement officers, while the federal government tried to convince them not to challenge the segregated system.

When they weren’t beaten, many riders were jailed in Parchman Penitentiary, but this backfired on supporters of segregation.

Their time in prison only increased the riders’ commitment to ending segregation, and made them better organized.

During the discussion Jeffries asked how many audience members would have been willing to go on the buses and risk their lives; only one person raised her hand.

On Thursday, a screening of the documentary “White Like Me” was shown in Benes Room B. The documentary is based off anti-racism activist Tim Wise’s book.

The documentary reflected on white privilege, discrimination and how many people think racism was solved decades ago, it is still a prominent issue in today’s society.

After the film, Sociology and Anthropology professor Dr. Paul Dean asked audience members to share their opinions on racism at Ohio Wesleyan and if they believe racial discrimination is still a prominent issue in the U.S.

In a question and answer section following the screening, some students who attended questioned why more did not.

Jim Mendenhall, ‘73, also attended the screening and said he thought it would have been nice to have more faculty and administration staff present.

“I think that racism is still a large issue in the United States,” said freshman McKenna Brewer, secretary of Sisters United.

“The fight for racial equality is not over, it continues every hour of every day.”

Sisters United and Black Men of the Future are both umbrella organizations of the Student Union on Black Awareness, which was founded in 1968 – the year of King’s assassination – to provide a voice for students of color on campus.

Mosola also expressed concerns about racism in modern society, stating that while racism may not be blatant, it does still exist.

“Racism is still a huge problem, but the nature of it has changed,” Mosola said. “(Now it’s) much more has to do with expectations, stereotypes, and institutional advantage (and) discrimination.

“There is still a long way to go, but changing how a culture thinks takes time. I think that with younger generations it will continue to improve in our lifetime.”