GOSHEN — It was nearly a full house at the Church-Chapel at Goshen College Monday for “King Celebration 2024: Black Housing and Unsung Sheroes.”
“We are out there in negative degrees,” said Aja Ellington, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the college at the beginning of the event, to a round of applause, in note of the bitterly cold weather which did not stop audience members from attending.
Monday was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, in honor of the late leader of the American Civil Rights Movement.
King was born Jan. 15, 1929 and the national holiday in commemoration of his birthday takes place the third Monday in January each year.
Ellington described the event as “an opportunity.”
“There’s never enough education or celebration in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or unsung heroes,” she said prior to the event.
H. Roz Woll, an assistant professor of music at the college who also helped coordinate the event, sees it much the same way.
“It’s an opportunity to participate in speaking to shared community concerns,” she said.
The keynote speaker for the event was Cyneatha Millsaps, executive director of the Center for Community Engagement at Goshen College.
“It is a blessing to stand before you today,” she said to the audience following her introduction.
Per the title, a key focus of the event was housing issues and injustices which African Americans have faced. In her address, Millsaps touched on historical factors such as the New Deal, the U.S. Constitution and mandatory discrimination in federal housing policy and programs, which benefitted whites almost exclusively, with discrimination against prospective African American homeowners not only allowed but encouraged.
“Just know that I would have been redlined,” Millsaps said, in reference to the term used to the practice of discriminating against a particular racial or ethnic group in housing, financial or other services.
Millsaps went on to discuss the impact of housing discrimination locally in Elkhart and South Bend, the issue of reparations to African Americans, and called for “a new movement of Black excellence.”
“We have to study history with fresh eyes,” she said, calling for “diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Caleb Shenk, a Goshen native and Bethany Christian High School graduate, is a senior at Goshen College, majoring in accounting.
“I always look forward to the Martin Luther King events,” he said before the event got started. “Goshen College does a lot of work in preparation. They bring in good people and I’m always glad to hear their perspectives.”
Other events which were part of the celebration included a poetry reading with Allison Joseph, at the Umble Center Saturday, and a Sunday worship service/sermon by Millsaps at College Mennonite Church.
To learn more, visit www.goshen.edu/ciie/intercultural/mlk or thekingcenter.org.
