Tabor convo recognizes Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "A man can't ride your back unless it's bent."
King was a man determined to stand up straight.
Students of all races gathered inside the Tabor College chapel-auditorium Monday morning to recognize this man on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It's a federal holiday that recognizes the life and accomplishments of the civil rights leader and activist. His birthday is January 15.
African-American students from the Tabor student body and a local African-American woman brought Monday's presentation, which featured music, readings, and poetry.
It was a program that recognized King's determination to bring dignity back to black Americans — and his passion to overcome hate with love.
After a group reading by the students, who shared notable quotes from several of King's speeches and writings, individual students came up to the microphone.
Zavien Rivers shared his reflections on how King paved the way for black Americans to enjoy the same freedoms as white Americans.
Today, black people take things like shopping in the same grocery store as white people for granted, Rivers said. That type of activity wasn't allowed in King's day.
"He made it possible for me and others like me," he said.
Next up, Garrett Bryant read a poem he'd written while considering King. Bryant is the first member of his family to go to college, he said.
King showed black Americans that they could stand up to injustice and overcome it. They could control their own destinies for the first time.
" 'I came into this world just to flip it and reverse it,'" one of the lines in the poem read. " 'I hold the key to success.'"
King chose not to bring attention to civil rights with violence.
" 'You could have hated but you chose to love,'" Bryant's poem read.
After Paula Spells read a Langston Hughes poem and LaVon Smith delivered King's "Where do we go from here?" speech, a rural Hillsboro resident spoke about her experiences as a black woman living in all-white environments.
Cathy Davis, who works for the Hillsboro Star-Journal, said "I didn't think I was an activist until I moved to Kansas."
Davis grew up in a middle-class environment in Youngstown, Ohio, going to public schools with a mix of black and white students. But as she got into high school, it seemed that many of the white families were heading to the suburbs and putting their kids in suburban high schools or private schools. That meant that the inner-city high schools had a majority of black students.
When Davis visited those suburban schools, she saw that they had better teachers, better equipment — a better standard of learning, she said.
Davis started college at a small Catholic university, where she first had to take remedial classes to compensate for her poor high school education.
But even if you're in that situation, Davis said, don't be too proud to take those classes — do whatever it takes to get ahead.
Davis graduated from Youngstown State University — the first person in her family to graduate from college. After teaching for two years in Ohio, she moved to rural Hillsboro where she married her longtime sweetheart, Ron.
Davis went through years of being one of very few black people in her classes at college, in addition to being one of just a few black teachers at her first teaching job at an all-white school.
Over the years, she's learned that no matter where she is, it's important to be who you are. Don't just assimilate yourself into the culture, she said.
It's been a lesson she's applied to her life in Hillsboro too.
"All the experiences I've had here have been for a reason and a purpose," she said.
