Martin Luther King Jr. Week: A celebration of diversity

Monday, January 21 marked 2008’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In response to this holiday, the Rose-Hulman Diversity Council sponsored several events, including an art and poetry contest, two speakers, and a showing of the documentary “Eyes on the Prize.”

Up until 2007, the Rose-Hulman community had done little to honor this holiday, which is very important to many people. However, this changed last year with the combined commitment of President Gerald Jakubowski and the Diversity Council to celebrate diversity and Dr. King’s message. This year, for the first time, Rose-Hulman held a convocation schedule on January 21 in honor of Dr. King.

In response to Rose-Hulman’s increased efforts to honor Dr. King and promote diversity George Evans, National Society of Black Engineers president, a member of the Diversity Council, and senior chemical engineering major, stated, “I am really excited that this year our school is going out of its way so to speak to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. This small effort that the school has taken is a large step for this institute in the right direction. It is hard as a black student on this campus to see how unimportant things like this seem to be for some people on campus especially from some of the people closest to us on campus. I have friends that I realize can’t and won’t be able to understand what this day means.”

The 2008 Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration began with an art and poetry competition. The theme of the competition was “Different Voices, Many Faces, One Nation.” Senior chemical engineering major Mariah Walton won the art competition with her piece titled “Looking Backwards to the Future.” The piece depicts an Aztec dancer. Walton stated, “She’s looking over her shoulder into the past, and into the future-because they’re intimately connected. From the steady decline of our biodiversity to the inability of many to see past simple prejudices, we clearly have yet to learn from history’s mistakes. While I don’t expect anyone to really get all that from my drawing, I do hope it maybe conjures images from our history.” Walton’s piece along with other submitted pieces can be viewed in the Hulman Memorial Union.

The first event of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration was a presentation by Robert Wilkins during the convocation on Monday, January 21. Wilkins is a 1986 Rose-Hulman chemical engineering graduate, and he later earned a law degree from Harvard Law School. Wilkins spoke about both advances that society has made towards equality since the 1960s as well as issues that still exist. He stated, “Many of the problems that Dr. King confronted in the 1960s still confront us today.” During his speech, he gave examples from his own life that concerned both equality and racial discrimination.

The second speaker slated for the celebration was Taiwan Brown. Brown is a leadership development consultant for Texas Instruments. She spoke to the Rose-Hulman community on Tuesday, January 22 about the important role of diversity in business. Sophomore biomedical engineering major Damien Harris stated, “I enjoyed meeting Taiwan Brown. She was a very impressionable woman. She provided me with a lot of insight into how I could improve myself as a person.” During her presentation, Brown presented some unique personal interaction ideas. Harris explained, “I especially enjoyed her Iceberg and Pyramid diagrams/demonstrations. It enlightened me to realize that when you as a person interact with all types of people, there are many levels beyond what you may reach or experience during that first meeting. There may be more going on with a person or situation than you may even be aware of that just do not come to mind. She made me realize that in order to get further in life I will definitely need to change how I think or even approach something or someone.”

The weeklong celebration closed with the showing of second episode of Eyes on the Prize on Thursday, January 24. Eyes on the Prize is a 14 episode documentary series about the American Civil Rights Movement. The Rose-Hulman Diversity Council has chosen to show the first three episodes of the documentary that spans from 1954 to 1962. The first second episode, “Fighting Back,” covers events from 1957 to 1962.

With the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Rose-Hulman has taken a step forward in the celebration of diversity. Although the school has improved significantly in the last two years, Evans states, “This school has a long way to go, and I suppose it was a bit naive of me to think that we could make a large change overnight. However, if the people from the civil rights era gave up because there seemed to be opposition, we never would have gotten anywhere. As long as there is even one person committed to making a change on this campus, and I see that in Dr. Jakubowski, there is hope for a better future at Rose.”

On broader terms, in his speech, Wilkins presented the rhetorical question, “What would Dr. King say about the state of America today?” He responded, “I believe that he would say that celebration is nice, but that the work is not finished. I believe that he would say that holidays are grand, but that we should remember his message on the workdays as well. I believe that he would say that hate expressed by a few is disturbing, but that apathy by the masses is devastating.”