With this year’s theme, “Generated by Love: Let our voices be heard and works be seen,” Concordia College hosted multiple educational events to commemorate the legacy of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
One of the keynote speakers for MLK Day was Dr. Mariah Parker, who is a scholar; former Georgia county commissioner; rapper; and organizer with Raise Up the South, the Southern arm of “Fight for $15 and a Union.” Parker urged the audience to follow in King’s footsteps – to fight for others not only by going where the power is and “where the people are and where the power ought to be,” but also by being persistent.
“Embrace revulsion,” Parker said. “People are not going to understand the path that you take, the methods that you adopt, or even the very vision that you hold for the future that we need. But history shows us that is the marker that you are doing it right. But it doesn't just matter how you do it, it matters a lot who you do it with.”
The Rev. Kenneth Wheeler ’74 also gave a keynote address. He said when America sold its soul to slavery, it lost its capacity for humanity, and it will take more than one day a year (MLK Day) to repair that damage. He hopes to inspire people to embrace King’s compassion to change the state of our nation.
“Love can never ignore the truth,” Wheeler said. “Love, if it is real, requires us to confront the ugliness of our history – to tell the truth about ourselves and about what white supremacy and racism have made us.”
“Be maladjusted to suffering,” he added. “Be maladjusted to injustice. Be maladjusted to poverty. Be maladjusted to the systems that create the conditions where people’s humanities are robbed each and every day.”
Other events celebrating King included an exhibit on oppression, natural haircuts, a panel on microaggressions, and breakout class sessions.