The memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be honored this weekend with events combining the ideas of knowledge, acceptance and service, all leading up to the 12th Annual Alpha Phi Alpha Martin Luther King Jr. Silent March and Brunch.
The weekend’s events will kick off Thursday with “More Than a Dream: Social Justice, Community and King,” a panel discussion that will cover King’s work after the March on Washington and how it continues to affect today’s work towards equality and social justice.
Speakers will include Monica Jones, director of Ohio University Regional Campus Diversity; Tony Mayle, OU graduate and member of the Chesterhill Multicultural Genealogical Center; George Wood, superintendent and secondary school principal of Federal Hocking local schools; and Jan Griesinger, an Athens resident, social justice advocate and former director of United Campus Ministry.
“I will gear my comments towards actions that regional campus students can take to be engaged (in order to) address issues of education, poverty, social justice, etc.,” Jones said. “For many of the students on regional campuses, the issues are impacting them in their families, churches, schools, and jobs, so students must be involved with the potential solutions.”
Jones has been engaged in the MLK Day event planning for the past three years as a committee member and the past two as a panel participant. Jones said she believes that the challenges King spoke about decades ago continue to impact families in Ohio and throughout the country.
Griesinger, a first-time panelist, said she believes the panel is crucial because it recognizes the necessity of continuing King’s work.
“I think it’s very clearly important to honor who he was and what he did, and it’s also very important to say that whatever that was, it wasn’t enough,” Griesinger said. “We have to keep at it. There’s still racism, there’s still injustice issues, and we have to keep standing up and working towards change.”
Rather than merely attend MLK Day events or see it as a day off from classes, Jones said she hopes the panel will lead students, faculty, staff and community members to quit “having” an MLK holiday and start “doing” the MLK holiday.
“In life one can choose to be a spectator or to be a participant,” Jones said.
“There are so many people in need that one person can make a difference. The realization that just to be in college is a privilege that others have not been given should be the motivation for every student to volunteer in some capacity.”
eb104010@ohiou.edu
