To honor the life and work of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Hill recognized the power in taking action and planning for the future with this year's theme of "Voices of Change: Social Movements Then & Now.” Dr. King’s commitment to the Civil Rights movement is seen through his tremendous organization of the movement and his ability to build a community in a time of need.
We kicked off the MLK Day commemoration on Sunday afternoon by hearing from keynote speaker Dr. Matt Washington. Author of The Jim Crow North: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Dr. Washington gave two talks to the greater Pottstown and Hill communities about the Southern influence seen in Pottstown during the Civil Rights Movement
On Monday, advisers facilitated discussions and led groups of students through a hands-on art build organized by Dean of Equity and Inclusion Eric Khong and the DEI Student Council. These art exhibits encouraged students to interact and think about how they each play an important role in their community. These collaborative stations included A Thousand & One Hands, designing a tile that represents you to be added to the wall in the Mercer Field House; Web of Connection, a web of yarn connected by students similarities; Photography Story Booth, a booth where students could write down their story and take a photo next to it; and Threads of the Future, crisscrossing threads of hopes for the future written by students and faculty.
Tarana Burke Offers Keynote Address
Later that afternoon, Hill welcomed Tarana Burke, author, social activist, and founder of the Me Too Movement, to share her thoughts on creating a movement and how she began ‘Me Too’. Burke reflected on the question, ‘How do you start a movement?’ She began that there is no simple answer, but put plainly, “Social change starts with a vision that won’t let you rest.” Burke explained that Dr. King was not looking to begin the Civil Rights movement, but in order to make the changes that he wanted to see in the world, he had to organize and build a community on his own. She noted that change requires three things: community, courage, and most importantly, time. Social change is a slow and steady process that sometimes occurs over decades, just like the Me Too movement. She was able to begin her movement like many other leaders, by “transforming pain into power and purpose.”
Student leaders from Students Advocating for Mental Health (SAMH) and the DEI Student Council led a panel discussion with Burke. She spoke with Hill students about her experiences that led her to start her own movement, although that was not her intention when she first started her work. Students asked about the origin of her movement and Burke explained that she started working towards her movement when she was 14 years old after experiencing sexual violence when she was a child. After working with other young women, she realized that it was a societal issue: “I looked at these girls and knew that what they were feeling in the pit of their stomach felt exactly like mine.”
Burke created a MySpace page for the movement where victims could anonymously share their stories. Burke spoke about how ‘Me Too’ took off years later, and what she feels accountability looks like. Burke concluded, “The movement has always been about survivors, not perpetrators. Self-care for me looks like finding folks that think and feel the same way that I do.”
Burke visited Hill as part of this year’s Tom Ruth Speaker Series.