UNIVERSITY NEWS | “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” said Kim Harris, visiting professor of theological studies, quoting Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., adding that “as Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reached across racial … and religious divides to work for freedom, the message remained the same.”
That message was the theme of this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration and Prayer Breakfast, which filled St. Robert’s Hall auditorium with nearly 200 people on Thursday, Jan. 18.
Nathan Sessoms, director of the Office of Black Student Services, said the goal of the event was to create an “opportunity for students, faculty, staff, and administrators to engage in discussion,” and to encourage the “LMU campus and community to come together and recommit to the legacy of Dr. King.” The Office of Black Student Services organized the event with the Office of Campus Ministry.
While he was clear that the event was “first and foremost a day to remember Dr. King,” Sessoms reminded the audience that there are many memories to choose from. There’s the King who led church congregations, and the King who faced punishment for nonviolent demonstrations. There’s the King who helped the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act become law, but there’s also the King who then started a Poor People’s Campaign for economic justice, and the King who was killed exactly one year after publicly protesting American militarism overseas.
The morning’s program repeatedly called for the audience to reflect on how King’s message resonates today, and to ponder what injustices King might be fighting if he were still alive.
There were several prayers, songs led by the LMU gospel choir, a reading by Dean Bryant Keith Alexander of Maya Angelou’s poem “When Great Trees Fall,” and three featured speeches. LMU President Timothy Law Snyder, Ph.D., called for a new, more understanding approach to civil discourse at all levels, including our social media, our campus, and the White House.
Two spoken word performers, both LMU students, received standing ovations for their pieces about America. While Harold Lloyd listed off issues either caused or ignored by this country’s policies, Brenda Quintanilla’s performance took the form of a letter to the U.S. president; she promised to “resist” his agenda of immigration reform with each day she has left in the country. Quintanilla said that like King, she too is a “dreamer,” and shared that as of Thursday — despite being raised in this country — she had exactly 273 days before possible deportation.
The event closed with a prayer by James Erps, S.J., director of Campus Ministry. Sessoms said that prayer remained an emphasized part of the event — rather than making more time for group discussions, student performances and speeches — “beyond King being a reverend and this being a Christian university, part of the African-American experience is [recognizing that] while there’s been a great deal of struggle, there’s also a great deal of hope for a better day … that the struggle will not last forever. And so, I think prayer is one way that we demonstrate and articulate our hope for a better future.”
Harris, noting the crowd’s diversity, said, “let us today — as an incredibly beautiful, multiracial, multi-faith, multi-identity, and international gathering, at a Catholic university, in the United States of America — pledge ourselves to carry this message forward. Injustice anywhere — in our dorms, in our classrooms, in our offices, in our chapel, in our plaza — injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“And we…” Harris quoted King once more, “we firmly ‘refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.’ Amen?”
Political science major Dylan Ramos is a junior, and a contributor to LMU This Week.
