On the day dedicated to honoring the memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Malcolm X Institute of Black Studies sponsored several events to encourage the Wabash community to not only remember the efforts of King and the numerous others involved in the civil rights movement but also to prevent Americas from believing that the country has reached King’s Promised Land.
The events of the day began with a March on Wabash at 7:00 a.m. when about two dozen members of the Wabash community marched from the Chapel to the steps of Trippett Hall carrying placards and singing songs from civil rights marches. The march was not in protest to anything specific but was instead meant to serve as a reminder that the goals of the March on Washington have yet to be fully achieved.
Once at Trippett Hall, which Professor Emeritus Peter Frederick fittingly mentioned was the site of the original home of the Malcolm X Institute, the marchers heard Professor Tim Lake provide some history on the March on Washington before Professor John Aden gave his remarks.
Calling on his background in West African history, Aden urged those present to be aware of the trickster who appears at the crossroads and attempts to prevent the traveler from completing his journey. Aden said he believes society is approaching a crossroads and he insisted that in order to fully achieve equality among the races people must remain vigilant and push forward, avoiding the efforts of the trickster to delay us.
The MXI continued its celebration with a “Freedom Exhibit” in the Caleb Mills House. At noon, Professor Emeritus Hall Peebles gave his Midday Reflections.
To conclude the day, the MXI, through the assistance of Wal-Mart Optical, presented King scholar Drew Hansen. Hansen, a Rhodes Scholar, lawyer, and author, gave a speech that went beyond the traditional view of King as a successful civil rights leader and a martyr for his cause.
Hansen admitted that his speech was not celebrating King’s triumphs but was instead focusing on his tragedies because he claimed, “tragedies tell us more.” He argued that, in his tragedies, King demonstrated what it means to be a “gentleman.”
Instead of focusing on the successes of the civil rights movement and King, Hansen focused on the challenges and failures King endured. He focused primarily on the couple of years following King’s success in Montgomery and then the last few years of his life when King began pushing for social justice beyond the South.
Hansen covered the many sacrifices King made during his life, which were financial, familial, and mental. He gave up his guarantee of a stable income by taking a position with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In becoming the face of the civil rights movement, King also sacrificed time with his family.
By the time of the campaign in Chicago to end housing discrimination, Hansen claimed that King was “close to losing it completely” because he had been worn down by the numerous hassles and little troubles that he had faced throughout his efforts.
In concluding his speech, Hansen argued that King was a gentleman because the “true life of a gentleman pays the cost in sacrifice,” and King had undoubtedly made many sacrifices throughout his life.
After his speech, Hansen opened the floor for questions. He received a number of questions from a broad range of the audience about his research and his own personal thoughts on King, which he considered quite difficult to answer.
Josh Bellis ’08 felt the speech was good but was more pleased by the question-and-answer session. “I got a lot out of the question-and-answer period because I had some questions about his research,” Bellis said. “I was glad to learn more about the research he had done.”
A number of the audience members found Hansen’s speech to be very informative. Many approved of Hansen’s effort to move beyond the traditional view of King.
“The speech was challenging,” Trey Chinn ’06 said. “It shed a new light on King that is not usually acknowledged but needs to be.”
“I found it inspirational as well as a beneficial perspective not known to many,” MXI Chairman Charles Jackson ’07 said. “He challenged us to look at Dr. King from every aspect, not just the ones we know him from.”