It was a day for dreams both old and new at Goshen College. In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the school hosted a flurry of activities both contemplative and exuberant.
“Dream along with me, and dream along with him, and don’t wake up until completed is our mission,” GC student James Green shouted in a piece of his dramatically performed poetry during a spoken word coffee house early in the day.
A prayer breakfast, “Walking in the Legacy of ‘The Dream’” program, and “Living ‘The Dream:’ Avenues of Action” fellowship period, along with the spoken word event, gave attendees a chance to meditate on the lessons of King and local civil rights issues. Key among participating guests were two local families.
Adam and Maggie Williams, of Elkhart woke to a burning cross in their front yard in May of last year. At the college, they spoke of their experiences. According to Adam, who was born and raised in Shelby, Miss., he never experienced racism until he moved to Indiana. Between his birthplace and his experiences, he feels a kinship with the civil rights leader.
“Martin Luther King Jr. is my mentor,” he said. “Growing up in Mississippi, he is a role model.”
The confluence of the holiday and the inauguration of the country’s first black president only serves to increase his excitement.
“Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Tomorrow, with the first black president, it means the world to me,” Williams said.
Stacie Meyers-Ray of Osceola attended and participated with her family, speaking about her battle against an Osceola white supremacist compound. During a group presentation with the Williamses, her young son referred to Ku Klux Klan members as “monsters in white hoods shouting hatred in the night.”
While the two families spoke, images were projected from KKK rallies in Elkhart, Goshen, Three Rivers and South Bend, as well as the Osceola compound and the cross burned in Williams’ yard. By the end of their statements, pictures of cultural awareness events and diversity celebrations graced the screens.
College officials organized the day both out of remembrance and the promise of continued effort to realize King’s dream.
“The national motto of the MLK service day is ‘a day on, not a day off,’” Odelet Nance said. “Therefore, MLK Day has been designated as a time when Goshen College creatively offers structured programming to encourage continued action for racial and social justice. The overall goal of the day is to emphasize the values and ideas that characterized Dr. King’s work, to send a challenge to resist injustice and oppression in non-violent ways and espouse the belief that Dr. King’s dream is an attainable dream.”
Nance is director of the school’s Multicultural Affairs Office. She led the “Walking in the Legacy of ‘The Dream’” segment, giving opening remarks and directing the Voices-n-Harmony Gospel Choir, as well as leading the audience in singing “Happy Birthday.” If still alive, King would have turned 80 last week.
A petition and pre-written letters were available to attendees to support a bias crimes law in the state. The letter notes that 45 states have passed such laws. Thus far, Indiana has no anti-hate crime legislation.
“According to the FBI’s 2007 Hate Crime Statistics Report, Indiana reported 40 bias crimes that have occurred in 2007. Of those, 25 were motivated by racial bias, nine by religious bias, three by sexual orientation bias and three by ethnicity bias. Experts believe that hate crimes are vastly underreported — both by victims and by law enforcement agencies. This is undoubtedly true in Indiana as members of law enforcement here may be inadequately trained to recognize bias crimes when they occur,” the letter reads.
Attendees were also encouraged to visit Tolerance.org, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, where Web surfers can learn more about the current state of and efforts promoting civil rights.
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Goshen College honors King's legacy
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