Members of the Union community gathered at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 4 to remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and to pray for continued progress in racial reconciliation on the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination.
The event, preceded by a screening of the film, “The Century: Searching for the Promised Land,” the eighth segment in a 15-part ABC series produced in 1999, was sponsored by MOSAIC, the Center for Intercultural Engagement, the Center for Just and Caring Communities and the Center for Racial Reconciliation and entitled “Where Do We Go from Here?” The commemorative event began outside Union’s library in solemn reflection as the bell tower rung 39 times at 6:01 p.m., the exact time that King was shot and killed by an assassin on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. King was 39 years old.
Following the ringing of the bells, senior music major Cameron Smith sang “Give Me Jesus,” and Union President Dr. Samuel “Dub” Oliver addressed those in attendance and opened the service in prayer.
“Indeed, we gather on this great lawn at Union to remember a mighty warrior….,” Oliver said. “As we remember Dr. King, we also should remember the other heroes who died in the fight for civil rights and justice for all people in our country.”
Oliver reminded attendees of the story of Echol Cole and Robert Walker, two black sanitation workers who were crushed to death in the back of a garbage truck in February 1968 when the truck malfunctioned because they weren’t allowed to ride in the truck’s cab like the white workers.
Oliver also shared that Union was one of the first universities to join in an initiative called the Dream Forward Scholarship at the MLK50 Conference in Memphis just hours prior to Union’s event. The Dream Forward Scholarship is set to provide two full-tuition scholarships to the descendants of sanitation workers on strike in Memphis 50 years ago. He also acknowledged that the work of racial reconciliation and social justice is not over.
“Indeed, much has been achieved and accomplished over these last 50 years, but as we stand here this evening, we also must recognize that much more needs to be done,” Oliver said. “As we remember today, let’s also commit ourselves to ever moving forward and ever being more committed to root out injustice and racism and bigotry in our own hearts and wherever we find it in the systems and institutions of our community and this world.”
Dr. Frank Anderson, director of the Center for Racial Reconciliation and organizer of the event, also addressed the attendees.
“As we celebrate Dr. King’s legacy, I think we should remember that a great legacy always begs the question of what we will do with the example that has been set before us,” Anderson said. “Here at Union University, we choose to be a community, a community of authentic Christian faith, a community of Christian love and a community committed to social justice.”
A responsive reading and reflection was then led by members of the student organization MOSAIC. The community reading began and ended with Scripture and included quotes from some of King’s well-known speeches and writings such as “Letters from a Birmingham Jail,” “Strength to Love” and “Where Do We Go from Here?”
After the responsive reading, Dr. Ben Mitchell, Mary Anne Poe, Dr. Daryll Coleman and Dr. Phillip Ryan led those in attendance in prayer for wisdom, racial and social justice, unity and diversity-in-unity.
The event concluded with the Union University Proclamation Singers singing “May His Peace Be with You” and a closing prayer by Todd Brady, vice president for university ministries.
Anderson says that he believes King’s greatest contribution to racial reconciliation was “his emphasis on love and non-violence” because King lived in a turbulent time. He notes that a major obstacle to racial reconciliation is that “we spend too much time talking in monologue instead of dialogue.” He believes that the first steps to addressing ongoing racial issues is to talk across racial lines, to try to better understand each other and to acknowledge America’s wretched racial history.
“I don’t think that we’re going to be able to achieve true racial reconciliation unless we’re seeking God’s face and seeking to give Him the glory,” Anderson said. “When we speak of authentic — I love that word ‘authentic’ — racial reconciliation, we have to remember the word itself means ‘of the author.’ So authentic racial reconciliation is God-authored racial reconciliation.”
Anderson says that Union can continue King’s legacy and promote racial progress by taking advantage of every opportunity to appreciate diversity and says that Union’s current collaboration with Lane College is a good way to value and understand diversity. Although he notes that Union’s community “may be a little challenged in terms of diversity,” he says that creating environments that promote collaboration and diversity is important.
“A lot of times when people talk about diversity, they talk about numbers,” Anderson said. “I think numbers provide a great way to measure how we’re doing, but I think we’ll be doing well here if we continue to focus on creating an environment that’s conducive for ethnic and racial diversity.”
