UM Honors The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

A community-wide dinner and celebration commemorated the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Friday, Jan. 17, at the Student Union Ballroom. The University of Mississippi’s Center for Community Engagement continued to honor King’s legacy of volunteerism with a day of service on Monday, Jan. 20.

Speakers at the dinner celebration included Vice Chancellor for Access, Opportunity and Community Engagement Shawnboda Mead, junior allied health studies major Devlyn Williams, retired UM Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Iman Gohar, award-winning poet and civic leader Gloria J. McEwen Burgess and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Access and Community Engagement Cade Smith. In honoring King’s legacy, speakers addressed the power of community and the need for and possibility of change.

Keynote speaker McEwen Burgess highlighted the importance of legacy leadership and beloved community, a notion central to King’s work. 

McEwen Burgess shared her journey, including the moving story of her father’s dream to attend college and the support that he received from Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner. McEwen Burgess emphasized the need for both inner and outer work to create lasting societal change. 

McEwen Burgess urged everyone to engage in daily acts of compassion to build a better future for themselves, their community and beyond. 

“It starts with me, and it starts with you,” McEwen Burgess said. 

McEwen Burgess emphasized the ability that this generation has to create lasting change. 

“I truly believe that our students are the smartest generation ever because you have grown up with the kind of world, or at least parts of it, that we’re imagining, and you have the tools, resources and imaginations that outstrip and outpace current and former generations. I believe that you have a vision for what’s possible and not only a vision for it but a drive to make things different,” McEwen Burgess said. 

Gohar, who provided an interfaith invocation for this event, discussed how the principles of Islam align with the King’s activism. 

“It is told (in Islam) that everyone should be treated with honor and respect, dignity and a loving kindness. The respect in Islam is the responsibility of each individual to treat all creation with respect, honor and dignity,” Gohar said. “I believe that the values and the changes that Dr. Martin Luther King called for are very similar to this call from Islam and Muhammad.”

Verna Stokes, an Oxonian and volunteer at the Oxford Community Market, left the celebration feeling hopeful. 

“It’s given us the encouragement to empower ourselves and to move forward and do better,” Stokes said. 

Sarah Baker, a recent UM graduate who has attended the event every year, identified with the message of legacy leadership. 

“You normally think that legacy is something that happens when you are long gone, but it is something that you can leave when you are still living life,” Baker said. “You can impact a place while you are here and then leave that legacy behind.”

During the MLK Day of Service, the volunteers’ work included installing raised beds for a new community garden, socializing rescued animals, cleaning and organizing the UM Career Center closet, writing letters of appreciation to UM Facility Services staff and making teething bracelets to be given to new and expecting mothers. 

“The event is important to commemorate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. It’s about coming together as a community,” Director of Community Engagement and Assistant Professor of Practice in Community Engagement Castel Sweet said. “Typically, we probably don’t in our everyday, week-to-week routine come together as a community to celebrate community and unity and do that in service. That’s why it’s good to do it at least once a year. So to be able to do that annually is something that we can look forward to.”

Approximately 180 volunteers signed up for the event, including UM Coordinator of Communication Access Julie Seawright.

“Martin Luther King and his wife did so much community activism, and I just chose to honor their service in this way,” Seawright said.

For Sweet, the MLK Day of Service is more than a day of volunteerism — it is a lifestyle that expands upon the annual memorial holiday.

“Keep finding ways to be in the community beyond just this year, so, not (just) waiting for January but finding other ways to be in service and work on projects together,” Sweet said.