The 2015 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed at Knox College on Monday, January 19, with a convocation ceremony, a teach-in, and a student-initiated demonstration and show of solidarity.

At the King Day Convocation, Knox faculty member Fred Hord discussed the ongoing struggle toward equality in the United States and at Knox.

"Knox is at a critical, critical place," said Hord, professor and chair of Africana Studies. "I think the spirit here, the spirit in this room, and especially the spirit of students on this campus is our best safeguard for moving ahead to a real equality."

Knox faculty member Konrad Hamilton's remarks focused on the role of police in a free society.

It is tragic that Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and others have died at the hands of police officers, said Hamilton, associate professor and chair of history.

"The fact that these men were killed by public servants, who used their authority to become judge, jury and executioner -- and that our legal system refused to do anything about it -- this makes it the business of all Americans," he said.

"As citizens, we must find reliable ways to empower and encourage police officers of good character and conscience, who want to do the right thing, but are prevented from doing so by the culture and practices of their own department," he added.

Hamilton outlined several steps citizens can take. They include:

• Organizing with fellow citizens and approaching elected governmental bodies, which approve police department budgets, with questions and complaints.
• Working with community groups to lobby for merit pay systems for local police, where officers with the fewest citizen complaints would be rewarded with pay increases.
• Reconsidering the role of police unions.

"Dr. King's activism reminds us that freedom is not something obtained by one generation and then guaranteed into perpetuity," Hamilton said. "Each generation must rediscover and redefine American freedom for itself, and each generation must have the commitment and the will to do what is necessary to protect that freedom."

The convocation ceremony also featured three students who recited poems inspired by their experiences as people of color. The students and their poems were Jordan Hurst '17, "Chloe"; Nicole Hunter '16, "The Advice I've Gotten"; and Catlin Watts '16, "History Repeating." In addition, the Knox College Choir performed.

Students' Show of Solidarity

Immediately after the King Day Convocation concluded, roughly 40 students demonstrated peacefully in the lobby of the Center for Fine Arts.

They joined hands, chanted "Black Lives Matter," and observed 4 ½ minutes of silence during a "die-in" where some students lay motionless on the floor. The 4 ½ minutes represented the 4 ½ hours that Michael Brown's body lay in the street after he was fatally shot last summer by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

Several of the students at the demonstration also aired grievances, saying that the Knox administration doesn't adequately support people of color.

"I criticize this school because I love this school," one of the students said. "I know that Knox can do better."

Another student said the show of solidarity reaffirms students' personal power and their power as a community.

After the demonstration, President Teresa Amott said: "Knox has always been deeply immersed in the pressing moral debates of the time, and the protest following today's MLK Day Convocation was an opportunity for our students to share their concerns about social justice on the Knox campus.  Their voices remind us that our community and our nation still have work to do to achieve our aspirations."

Teach-In

More than 150 Knox students, faculty members, and staff gathered in Alumni Hall late Monday afternoon for a "teach-in" designed to encourage open conversations about issues raised earlier at the King Day Convocation.

Those issues include race relations, citizenship, and the role of police in a free state, said one of the teach-in's facilitators, Knox faculty member Catherine Denial.

One of the aims of the teach-in is to talk about solutions -- that is, what "we can do to change things here at Knox," she said. Denial, Burkhardt Distinguished Chair in History and chair of American Studies, added that during the course of the small group conversations, everyone would be asked to commit to something specific that could result in change.