Jeremy Anderson and Michael White
MC301 Contributors
Students, faculty, staff and JSU community partners filled into the Rose E. McCoy Auditorium on Jan. 16 in celebration of the 47th Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Convocation. This year the event not only honored Dr. King, but also Margaret Walker-Alexander, poet, author and former Jackson State University professor.
Robert Luckett, director of the Margaret Walker Center stated, “It’s (the MLK Birthday Convocation) one of the oldest remembrance by of Dr. King’s life, and it started with Dr. Margaret Walker Alexander as professor of English at Jackson State University.”
According to Luckett, Alexander was a literary professor at Jackson State, where she founded the Institute for the Study of History, Life and Culture of Black People. Alexander started the convocation nine months after King’s assassination.
The guest speaker of this year’s event was Paula Giddings, professor of African-American studies at Smith College.
Giddings is the author of three books on the social and political history of African-American women: “When and Where I Enter: The Impact on Black Women on Race and Sex in America”; “In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement”; and also the critically acclaimed biography of anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells, “Ida: A Sword among Lions”. She is also a former book editor and journalist who has been published by companies such as the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
As the audience listened to the memorial landmarks of the Civil Rights Movement unfold, Giddings reminded them of the struggle of both blacks and women during that time.
Giddings, who had a close relationship with Walker, spent her time on stage sharing her fond memories and even writings from Walker herself. She fondly spoke with reverent gratitude as she chronicled Walker’s life and the impact she made on others. Professor Giddings even went as far to call Walker a “genius,” and comparing the students to Walker, saying that “a genius is already inside of you, as it was in Margaret.”
Giddings highlighted Walker’s sense of purpose and what Walker meant to people. In reference to the Black Studies movement, “She understood, and she helped us understand, that she and that we were a part of something larger than ourselves, something that we had to honor.”
Steven Gilbert, a junior mass communications major from Miami, Fla. said, “I thought the convocation was a great tribute to Martin Luther King. It was also a great tribute to the recipients of the 20th Annual For My People Awards. I liked the guest speaker and felt she was full of life and stories about Margaret Alexander Walker. I was disappointed that the MLK Convocation was not the center of attention, especially because it was a day dedicated to him, but overall, I really enjoyed it and it was very informative.”
Giddings ended her speech with this inspirational message: “If black people take over their own destiny, then we have to take over the destiny of the world. We are the descendants of Africa, but we also are the inheritance of America.”
Laura Coleman and Jenna Siddiqui contributed to this story
