Speakers at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium took the stage to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Wednesday night. Standing room only, Ohio University students, faculty and Athens natives acted as an audience to hear what the speakers had to share.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited Athens and spoke in MemAud in 1959 — four years before the March on Washington.
The event began when David Descutner, University College dean and associate provost for undergraduate studies, asked the audience to value the meaning of the march.
“Challenge to find the value of the march for ourselves,” Descutner said.
Some remembered personally meeting King, such as Francine Childs, a professor emerita in African-American studies.
“I was sitting on a sofa…and he came into the room, sat on the sofa’s arm and asked me, ‘Young lady, what will be your plight in life?’ ” Childs said. “Have a deep belief in your own dignity (because) no one can make you feel inferior. …Always feel that you have worth. Achieve excellence.”
Larry Griffin, founder and director of Capriccio Vocal Ensemble in Columbus, led the audience in the reading of the “I Have a Dream” speech and shared how he felt when he heard King’s speech on television in 1963.
“I was moved. …I stood up and said, ‘That’s the kind of country I want to live in,’ ” Griffin said.
Other topics highlighted at the event were from the Civil Rights Movement and included racial discrimination, protecting demonstrators from police brutality, creating a major public-policy organization that would create jobs and increasing minimum wage.
“I thought it was very informative. It was different and reflected some of the things King wasn’t really known for. It focused on other injustices. …There is so much more to this than just race,” said Jasmine Bailey, a senior studying psychology.
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