Dear Maroons:
In his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech on April 3, 1968, and just one day before his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. extolled, "Something is happening in Memphis, something is happening in our world." He praised citizens for standing up for justice in pursuit of a more perfect Union and handed the baton to us to keep the moral arc of the universe bending toward justice. I encourage you to watch this clip from that final day of King’s service to our nation. If there was a virtue that King implored us to pursue, it is love.
In many ways, these days also feel fraught with tension, yet our liberal-arts tradition and ELCA’s Rooted and Open calls us to keep making room for others. At Roanoke College, our faculty are working on pedagogy for managing difficult conversations, our students are engaged in service-learning opportunities in partnership with the local community, and our staff are building structured moments in which seemingly disparate views form the basis for friendship and care. Thank you for staying in conversation with one another and for respectfully transcending demographic, ideological, and political boundaries. The result is a growing list of spaces where everyone feels heard, valued, and part of the community. I believe this is the “promised land” that King saw ahead for us.
If you’re looking for a couple of practical ways to be in community, on Martin Luther King Day, local historian Jordan Bell will be leading a walking tour of Roanoke’s Gainsboro District (a historic African American neighborhood) beginning at the Gainsboro Library at 2:00 pm. If you cannot attend this event, you can take a self-guided tour using the information listed here.
On Wednesday, January 21, Roanoke College's Center for Civic and Religious Pluralism is hosting its next Coffee Shop Talk, inviting conversation about why respect for one another matters.
With hope,
Frank Shushok, Jr., President
Ashlee Williams, Senior Advisor to the President for Community Engagement & Belonging