As the Duke community celebrated Martin Luther King's life this weekend, the themes of unity in the midst of diversity and the equality of all people were on the minds of many participants.
The University has dedicated a full week to commemorate King, and the events began last Friday at noon with a candlelight vigil in his honor. The majority of events took place yesterday, on the federal and University holiday set aside to honor King. They included a "Yam Jam" community service project, a cultural extravaganza led by student groups, a speakout on the Chapel steps, a panel discussion on race and a movie, Follow Me Home.
Dr. Brenda Armstrong, a pediatric cardiologist and director of admissions at the School of Medicine, spoke at Friday's vigil about her personal experiences with racism, concluding that the struggle for racial equality was far from over. "We remember civil rights struggles of the '50s and '60s as the past," Armstrong said. "Yet these issues that Dr. King gave his life to are far from settled."
Many at Monday afternoon's speakout voiced similar sentiments, identifying problems ranging from the lack of minority social space at Duke to the more universal issue of stereotyping that remain concerns today.
"Coming from an all-black high school, I didn't expect to see the many stares when I enter a classroom," said Trinity sophomore Dorian Bolden, who also related how he is often watched in stores or taken for an employee rather than a student because he is black. "I really wasn't expecting the racial division that I see here at Duke."
Many speakers were hopeful that the activities would draw attention to these issues of race that still exist. "For one day, this campus is addressing the problems that I see every day," said Will Tyson, a second-year graduate student in sociology and a columnist for The Chronicle. "I'm just happy if I can just look at one face that doesn't look like mine and see that they're pondering the same questions."
Another major issue stressed by the student planning committee that organized the events was the importance of campus diversity. The cultural extravaganza, for instance, displayed the talents of student organizations from a variety of ethnic backgrounds; Diya, Mi Gente and Dance Black were featured before the packed audience in Von Canon.
Rudy Spaulding, a Trinity senior and planning committee member, said the performance symbolized the unity of diverse individuals that King envisioned. "Individual groups stress their own cultures [within a single unifying event]," he said. "It helps us all."
Monday morning's Yam Jam also reflected the idea of diverse groups working together for a single goal, as almost 100 volunteers bagged 47,000 pounds of donated yams for distribution to 37 local food banks.
"[King] was trying to bring our country together as a community," said Laura Hooper, a Trinity junior. "The best way to come together and meet new people... who are different from you is when you're working on a service project together."
The organizers agreed that the day was a success, although more participants would have been welcome. Not quite 100 people attended the Yam Jam, compared to last year's 275. While some explained the difference by the incentive of eight hours free from basketball tenting offered to volunteers last year, a few participants thought that more people should have attended.
"We have 12,000 people here with the graduates, and we had at most 120 people here," said Caleb Schultz, a Trinity senior. "That's 1 percent of our student body."
Most remained optimistic about getting people involved. "Given the cold, I was pleased," said Kameron Matthews, a Trinity senior and the member of the committee responsible for the speakout. "But I will always like more participants.... The eternal question [is] how to get the people who really need to hear the message [to attend]."
Greg Pessin contributed to this story.
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