LMU’s Alumni Association and Intercultural Affairs partnered on June 24, 2020, to bring LMU Solidarity Hour to alumni. More than 250 alumni tuned in to watch the program live on Facebook, with more than 300 positive comments overflowing the chat feature. Since then, thousands more have watched on LMU Alumni Association’s Facebook page.
The night was originally reserved for Alumni Association’s sixth annual Global Happy Hour, but with the recent Black Lives Matter demonstrations occurring all over the country, a swift decision was made to shift the focus to be in solidarity with our Black community.
The program featured personal stories from three Black alumni members representing three decades: Jerome Carter ’86, Yoshado Lang ’00, and Ryan Hopkins ’20. Cheryl Grills, professor of psychology and a leading expert on community healing, led a moving presentation that provided historical context around the unequal treatment of Black people in our society. Other speakers included LMU College of Communication and Fine Arts Dean Bryant Keith Alexander, who opened the program with a prayerful poem; President Timothy Law Snyder, Ph.D., who shared the university’s action steps to fight systemic racism and oppression; and Ernesto Colín ’99, M.A. ’01, and assistant professor of education, who served as moderator, knitting the program together with words of action and hope.
To view the program, visit here.
