Quite the busy couple of days on campus here at EMU: First, for Martin Luther King day today, EMU has a bunch of stuff going on, as listed in the EMU MLK Day web site: basically, there are speakers, “learning beyond the classroom” opportunities for students, the whole nine yards. Though I have to say that if I had the time, I’d probably try to go see Larry Wilmore from The Daily Show talk over at the U of M Ballroom. Here’s a link to a AANews article about local events.
And then on Tuesday, you might have heard we get a new president. There is a list of activities at EMU on the EMU homepage here (it’s a PDF). One highlight for me they’ll be showing a televised version of the proceedings in the EMU Student Center Ballroom from 11 am to 1 pm.
Students from my Civil Rights Movement, fall 2008 class, will be putting on a mini version of “The Trial of Martin Luther King: Montgomery 1956,” a Reacting to the Past game, as part of today’s EMU MLK Day events. It should be interesting to see — and everyone is welcome. Here’s your chance to be part of a pivotal civil rights era trial, in an Montgomery, Alabama courtroom from 1956, Judge Eugene Carter presiding. The rules and customs of that time and place will prevail, of course….
It’s at 2pm and again at 3pm, in the Kiva Room, Student Center. One of our objectives in this performance today — which is unscripted, but does follow a plan and involves students who’ve seriously studied King and the civil rights movement — is to show that King’s movement was up against some very serious opposition. He was more than a dreamer. He was not, while he lived, the universally honored national hero that he has become in death. Without understanding segregationism, you can’t understand Dr. King.
Reacting to the Past is an innovative teaching method invented at Barnard College and now used at scores of universities across the nation. EMU is one of the newest schools to be part of the Reacting to the Past consortium.
And of course, EMU has lots of other fine events for MLK Day.
He’d have turned 80 years old last Thursday; he’s been in the grave now longer than he lived above ground. Yet of course, King still lives. He’s the most admired American of all time, opinion surveys show, yet too few people know what he and his Movement did.
A tip of the hat to everyone who put together this year’s EMU MLK Day events — spending virtually nothing to do so.