纪念马丁·路德·金的一天.

1月. 15, the Westminster community celebrated the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. 有一整天的研讨会, punctuated by a keynote address by Deacon Art 米勒 and a performance by the Shades of Yale 没有乐器伴奏的 group.

 

米勒, 一个作家, 电台主持人, 复兴, retired businessman and former director of the Office for Black Catholic Ministries for the Archdiocese of Hartford, 我在芝加哥南部长大. He was a classmate of Emmett Till who in 1955 at age 14 was savagely beaten, murdered and dumped in a river by two white men in rural Mississippi after they accused him of offending a white woman. 在谋杀案审判中, 全是白人的陪审团认定这两人是无辜的, which sparked the Civil Rights movement by bringing national attention to the racial violence and injustice prevalent in Mississippi.

 

“Till wasn’t killed because he whistled at a white woman, 他被杀是因为他身处一个充满仇恨的地方,米勒说, 解释了仇恨在社区中盛行的原因, 密西西比州对此表示支持.S. 联邦政府允许它发生.

 

被种族暴力的增加所感动, 米勒, at 17, 参加了金在芝加哥组织的抗议活动, 他被捕的地方. “I was afraid, but I had to do what was right,米勒说 of the experience.

 

保持沉默会使痛苦永久化. King’s message is about transformation –– the ability to change from what we are to what we can be, 米勒说.

 

He gave students a call to action asking them to love themselves, seek to be the best version of themselves and to lift one another up.

 

主题演讲结束后, students participated in some of the nearly 40 workshops offered in the morning and afternoon that covered a wide range of topics including group discussions on individual and cultural identities, 社会和环境正义, allyship, and Black scientific achievements and contributions to the field of visual and performing arts.

 

特邀作家兼演员兼音乐家马利克·沃克, 真人秀的创始成员, 一个开创性的爵士/嘻哈集团, 主持了一个关于金作为讲故事者的研讨会, 诗人兼表演者.

 

Students also had the opportunity to take part in several off-campus events, 包括在辛姆斯伯里参观金的暑假, where he worked in tobacco fields during his college years to pay for his education. 他们来到了马萨诸塞州的斯普林菲尔德., to Hope for Youth and Families to work with children in the organization's youth program. 

 

365平台主任 Miles Bailey hosted a special culinary event in his home. 同学们准备了一个“传统”,” southern new year’s day meal of smoked chicken and pork, 黑眼豆豆, 羽衣甘蓝和玉米面包. 共进晚餐后, they discussed the Netflix’s series “High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America.”

 

耶鲁的阴影，耶鲁首演之一 没有乐器伴奏的 下午的活动结束了 performance in Andrews Memorial 教堂 celebrating the music of the African diaspora and African American tradition.