The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has again inspired a week of both discussion and action in Athens.
For some, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day might mean a day to sleep in and ignore academics.
However, Ohio University has planned an entire week of educating and engaging students and people in Athens on social injustice and oppression in the name of the day.
Through the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, presented by The Office for Diversity and Inclusion, students will have the opportunity to act in the memory of Martin Luther King Jr.
The celebration begins Saturday with “Faith Acts,” an event that will replace the traditional Faith Leaders Breakfast, opening up discussion to the public. Rev. Evan Young, campus minister at United Campus Ministry and a member of the Martin Luther King Celebration Committee, had a hand in this change. With a recent resurgence of racial tension on campus and throughout the nation, Young said he believes the conversation on equality and social justice needs to be reinvigorated.
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The committee invited Rev. Mel Hoover, a Unitarian Universalist minister who had an active role in the church’s adoption of anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices, to lead the event.
“It is an important conversation that is filled with a lot of hurt, misunderstanding, suspicion and I think Rev. Hoover’s visit gives us an opportunity to engage in that conversation in a different way, in a way that is open, honest, respectful and hopefully transformative,” Young said.
The annual Silent March will be held Monday. Tyrone Carr, the chair of the committee, said the march’s sole purpose is uniting all those with Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision to stand for the disenfranchised and the oppressed.
Carr said the event is a reflection on the marches of the 1960s, in which people stood for civil rights and equality. These peaceful protests will also be remembered through showings of the film Selma at The Athena Cinema for the next two weeks.
Events will also speak to the intersectionality of social injustice. Speakers will also present on the issue of immigration in “Immigration, Refugees, and American Policy Panel Discussion” on Tuesday.
With help from the LGBT Center and the Women’s Center, events have been coordinated that highlight injustice in the intersections of race, gender and sexuality with “International Day of Solidarity with Trans Prisoners” on Friday and “Say Her Name: Remembering Black Women and Girls Killed by Police” will take place Thursday.
“It is not just limited to a black and white thing or a race thing,” Carr said. “It is diversity in the broad scheme and … intersectionality. For some people, (art) is the way they want to be heard.”
”The Creative Arts as Activism – Social Justice-Themed Open Mic Night” at Casa Nueva will allow participants to express themselves and their thoughts through the arts.
“There are many ways to talk about these issues, and I think that through art, it helps to heal,” Barb Harrison, assistant director of Off-Campus Living and a committee member, said.
The week will wrap with a “Day of Service,” in which student volunteers will give back to the community. Groups will visit The Gathering Place, Community Food Initiatives, ReUse Industries, Restore, Southeast Ohio Food Bank, Mother Earth Community Thrift Store, Athens County Humane Society and the Multicultural Genealogy Center. Harrison invites those interested to sign up through OrgSync.
“King did believe we had to reach out to one another from whatever motivation a person has,” Harrison said.
In its culmination, Young said the week should lead to an increased commitment to the elimination of social injustice and racism in society.
“I think before we can heal, we have to know, we have to understand, and that means people like me — white people — have to listen,” Young said. “We have to be better students of our own history and be more aware of our role. That’s not going to feel like healing right away, but I think long term, it will be healing.”
@graceoliviahill
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