What existed before as a series of service opportunities, to become legacy oriented and more informative.
Since 2000, Winthrop University has made efforts to observe MLK Day “as a day of celebration, remembrance and service with events sponsored by various departments and organizations.” As a holiday, MLK Day exists as the only federal holiday established as a national day of service. Over the past few years, Winthrop has established week-long community service-focused events in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr., following the federal holiday observed on the third Monday in January.
According to Collins Cornwell, Winthrop’s Director of Student Conduct, the university “[wants] to encourage and empower our students to create a legacy here on campus through service,” this year while also establishing new educational events centered around the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
This year, instead of the usual fully service-oriented schedule, Winthrop has taken to change towards an impact-focused celebratory week. Hosted Jan. 19-25, there will be four educational events hosted on campus alongside two community service opportunities, all of which aim to remind students of the natures and teachings of Martin Luther King Jr.
The Division of Student Affairs, a campus student organization, has outlined the following sponsored activities that will be hosted throughout the week of Jan. 19.
All residence halls on campus began to conduct a canned food drive. The location of the drop-off box may vary depending on each respective student hall. The food drive calls for non-perishable food items, such as particular canned goods, pasta, beans, rice, or any other long-standing shelf-safe goods. This drive will last throughout the week and end on Jan. 25.
On Jan. 20, a candlelight vigil was held at Dina’s Place. Sponsored by the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, this vigil began with an hour-and-a-half-long program consisting of multiple presentations by members of Alpha Phi Alpha and performances by Winthrop’s “Vision of Prayze” gospel choir.
The main speaker at this event was Alpha Phi Alpha Brother Jacobe Reid, a Winthrop alumnus, who used his time with students to share passages and stories from the Bible. As a youth minister at The Worship Center of Spartanburg, Reid describes himself as “a scholar, a leader and [most] importantly, [a] child of God.” Using his religious passions, Reid committed his time on campus to uniting students and sharing with them words of encouragement and inspiration, of which led right into the official processional event: the MLK Candlelight Vigil held on Campus Green. Students held lit candles in a circle formation and were led by Brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha in prayers and shared words.
Following the vigil, there was an MLK Brunch held on Jan. 21 at 11 a.m. in Dina’s Place and presented words from South Carolina Representative and alumnus Kambrell Garvin, and Winthrop’s own Political Science and African American Studies Professor Adolphus Beck Jr., whose work has been published in “The Journal of Race and Policy” amongst others.
On Jan. 22, a 45-minute documentary titled “Counter Histories: The Friendship Nine” was presented in Dina’s Place at 7 p.m. This documentary centers around the nine African American men who were arrested for staging a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter here in Rock Hill in 1961. Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy faculty member Crystal Glover, a Winthrop alumnus, and Department of History faculty member Jennifer Dixon-McKnight both spoke at this event.
On Jan. 23, an event titled “Ima Be Me: Black in White Spaces” will be held in G02 Owens Hall at 11 a.m. The guest speakers appearing at this event include Theophilus Clark, Winthrop Director of the First-Year Experience, and Winthrop alumnus Bry-Anne Jones, who also serves as a campus counseling services Director. This will be an event focused on exploring the experiences of Black students when attending predominantly White educational institutions in America.
To conclude MLK Week, Winthrop’s Office of Sustainability will host a “Clean Up” on Campus Green, beginning early that day at 10 a.m. This is an event that has remained consistent throughout Winthrop’s various MLK Week celebrations, establishing itself as a tradition. These clean-ups previously used to occur every Friday in January, but this year Winthrop will hold the event on the 24th.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been honored and observed throughout campus since 2000. While the original establishment of the holiday was in 1986, Winthrop University makes continual efforts to ensure the holiday and its nature are appropriately upheld and honored throughout campus. The establishment of MLK week, especially with its new legacy and impact focus, helps further uplift and broadcast African American voices on campus, whether student or faculty.
This dedication to informing campus by honoring African American experiences through a series of educational workshops, informative speakers and service events is an admirable step forward and a trait that will hopefully be further uplifted throughout the quickly upcoming month of February, notably established as Black History Month.
