Over the course of last week, students and faculty alike honored civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. with a series of events dedicated to the discussion of activism and honoring those who were themselves activists.
These events began on Jan. 13, when Clemson students took a trip to Alabama; they visited Selma, Montgomery and Birmingham. They also marched arm in arm across the Edmund Pettis Bridge, an iconic bridge where peaceful civil rights activists, protesting the lack of African American voting rights, were attacked by police officers in 1965.
On Jan. 16 a discussion of the book “Why We Can’t Wait” by Martin Luther King Jr., took place in the ASC building. Here, they discussed the books’ significance both in the time in which it was written and in modern times.
Then on Tuesday, students participated in a day of service and a blood drive.
On Thursday, the Minority Student Success Initiative, along with multiple other groups advocating for equality for minority students, hosted an event titled Reflecting Through the Years: Activism at Clemson. Here, students of both the past and present came together to talk about the history of activism here at Clemson University. Panelists discussed both personal activism and activism as a whole. African American panelists and former students, both those who graduated years ago and those who graduated recently, recounted times when they had experienced racism at Clemson. They also recounted times in which they had stood up for what they believed in, despite their protests sometimes going against Clemson’s administration and university policy. Blair Durkee discussed her fight to promote LGBTQ rights and awareness on Clemson’s campus.
Finally, on Friday, Clemson hosted an event called The Tunnel of Oppression. Here, volunteers performed skits which were “acted out by members of our campus community that depict real-life scenarios of power, privilege and oppression experienced by marginalized populations in our society.”
These events honored both the work and the spirit of Dr. King, whilst simultaneously ensuring that his spirit lives on at Clemson University.