The words of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech filled a UM Law School auditorium Wednesday, encouraging students to contemplate the progress made in the 43 years since that oration’s delivery.
The law school’s sixth annual Martin Luther King Day Commemoration Panel, titled “Race and Civil Rights,” spurred discussions on the historical process of slaves building legal competence, the mistrust and violent uproar among citizens as a result of police misbehavior and the importance of oral history in learning from cultural history.
The topics ranged from the historical process of slaves building legal competence, the mistrust and violent uproar among citizens as a result of police misbehavior and the importance of oral history to preserving cultural wisdom.
Alysia Burton Steele, assistant professor of journalism, presented her book, “Delta Jewels: In Search of My Grandmother’s Wisdom,” which highlights the significance of older generations’ experiences. Steele said phones and a constantly busy nature cause present-day people to lose interpersonal skills and take life for granted, and therefore neglect the pieces of history in elders.
“I think you’ll have a sense of huge regret if you don’t get to know your elders or why your mom was this way or why your grandmother was this way,” Steele said.
“Once you get older and start to reflect on your life you’ll wish that you had learned a little bit more.”
Third-year law student Jess Waltman attended the panel every year since he started law school.
“This has been the best one yet,” Waltman said. “I connected most with Professor Steele’s presentation about her book and her experience in the delta collecting oral histories.”
A question and answer session from the audience also started a deeper discussion concerning comparisons of the structure of protests and movements during the Civil Rights era and today, and the King’s likely response to the current progress of social and racial justice were he alive today.
Many professors involved said they were grateful for the chance to enlighten others and to honor King with the presentations of their compositions.
“I was delighted when Jack emailed me to ask if I would be interested in presenting some of my work,” Anne Twitty, assistant professor of history, said. “It’s always exciting to have the opportunity to share your work, and I think one of the biggest takeaways for me on this panel was the way in which, although we were talking about three very different subjects, all of us came back to issues of everyday life.”
Moderator and senior associate dean of the law school Jack Nowlin feels that this is an especially important event for the University.
“I think it communicates to the University community how much we care about Martin Luther King, his life and legacy, civil rights and issues of racial justice,” Nowlin said. “It’s important that we not just celebrate the holiday and have a closure but that we actually have something affirmative about it and the law school thinks it’s particularly important to have an academic panel to continue discussion of the issues that Martin Luther King raised so effectively in his life.”
