By Toma Lynn Smith
The sunshine was melting away the snow on the ground. But, there was more warmth inside two
The Playhouse was filled with the audience singing “Lift Every Voice & Sing,” and at the Red Barn, Elaina Shumake, an Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority member sung the same song solo.
Early this afternoon, the U of L campus began celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
At 1 p.m. the events of Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Service and the Commemorative Walk started. The service at the Playhouse was hosted by U of L African-American Theatre Program and the Office of Business Affairs. The walk presented by Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. started at the Red Barn.
Although the two events were held separately, they were together in spirit. Dr. Lundeana M. Thomas said early on that, “Change is sweet. It is sweet.” The director of AATP reminded the audience of how people such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Rosa Parks, Booker T. Washington, and King’s wife Coretta Scott King would be very proud of Barack Obama’s election as the nation’s first black president.
Many students and their supporters marched from the Red Barn to “The Thinker” in front of Grawemeyer Hall chanting and singing songs such as, “We Shall Overcome.”
Dr. Kaila Story was the Keynote Speaker. Story, a U of L professor of Women’s & Gender Studies and Pan-African Studies said, “Racism, homophobia, ageism, and classism are real conditions of all our lives in this place and time.”
However, “What we need now is to develop the tools for using human difference as a springboard for creative change within our lives and within our movement,” she said.
Both Thomas and Story combined both remembrance and emphasis on how there is still work to be done.
“Let’s continue this day with the acknowledgement that we are now claiming a space for ourselves to be heard, understood, acknowledged, and loved,” said Story.
