News & Events
Special & Annual Events
Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium
In Remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
On a Sunday night chapel service and during Monday’s 6th Annual MLK, Jr. Symposium, the School gathered to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. This year’s theme was “King’s Dream, Then and Now.”
In a Sunday night chapel service and during Monday’s 6th Annual MLK, Jr. Symposium, the School gathered to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. This year’s theme was “King’s Dream, Then and Now.” Arranged by the Office of Community and Equity in collaboration with the McCain-Ravenel Center, the day’s program included:
- a keynote address from author Zachary Wood, which focused on how Dr. King breathed life into his dream through steadfast adherence to the notion of agape love. Mr. Wood’s talk touched on his own story of overcoming adversity and provided insight into the ways we might make progress in a world that is too often riven with bitter opposition because of the politicization of the social issues so central to Dr. King’s life work;
- a roundtable discussion on the theme “Dr. King’s Dream, Then And Now” with participants Mr. Wood, longtime Episcopal coach Cornell Jones, and Shannon Foley Martinez of American University’s Center for University Excellence. Unfortunately, Alexandria civil servant Gwen Day Fuller, who initially planned to join our discussion, was not able to join us because of complications related to the Covid pandemic;
- individual workshops hosted by Mr. Wood, Ms. Foley Martinez, Nettie Webb ’18, and multiple members of our faculty and staff covering a wide range of topics from the integration of Episcopal to the importance of engaging with those who oppose us;
- lunch inspired by The Meal that Never Was, as well as Dr. King’s appreciation of comfort and sustenance unique to Southern cooking;
- the assembly of care packages for unhoused local people in need;
- in respect of the call of the King family for civic engagement in voting issues, the sharing of resources about voting rights so that students could reach out to their elected officials on either side of the issue;
- and game-play using "Breaking It Down: Out of Many We Are One," a board game that uses a relational model to ameliorate division by facilitating conversation about race in a non-toxic manner.
