In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

MSU campus leaders joined together on Friday, Jan. 15 to host a virtual celebration acknowledging one of the greatest social activists the world has ever known —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ph.D.

The celebration kicked off with a background on Martin Luther King Jr. organized by leaders of the MSU Black Student Union, Jessica Brito and Anaya Paschal. Brito and Paschal also recognized other influential civil rights leaders including Angela Davis and Malcolm X, and emphasized how the Civil Rights Movement is still relevant today.

“Given the current state of race relations in our country, now is a more important time than ever to teach people about the injustices faced by Black people across America. Rather than focus on the more somber aspects of reality, we’ve decided as Black people that there is still much to celebrate in these unprecedented times,” Brito said.

This year’s celebration took a different approach as compared to last year’s event, which consisted of a series of presentations with the main goal of educating the audience. The aim of this year’s celebration was to instead demonstrate a wider perspective of the Black experience.

“We wanted to ensure that several walks of life from the Black community, as well as the Black student experience here at MSU, were represented, so we reached out to groups of Black people from different segments of the university,” Paschal said. “This way, Black people from across campus would be able to share their perspective and experience.”

After the initial introduction, Kyla Bush, a freshman thrower for the women’s track and field team, led the “Black Student-Athlete Experience Panel.” Following Bush’s presentation, MSU alum Jamelle Phillips, Lyla Brown, the student coordinator for the Diversity and Inclusion Student Commons (DISC) and MSU graduate student Bukola Saliu led the “Black Students and Patients in Health Care Panel.” Next on the agenda were student leaders from the MSU African Students Association, Elijah Adeniyi and David Lartey, who spoke about the significance behind African names. The last event of the day was “Exploring Our Identities and Profession Panel,” where DISC program manager PJ Diamond examined the intersection of work and identity with her sisters Jasmine and Jade.

Diamond closed the celebration with King’s quote, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”