ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ Community, First Parish Church Remember MLK’s Visit
By Tom PorterThe ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ community joined with First Parish Church in Brunswick for a Sunday service dedicated to honor the legacy of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of King’s visit to Brunswick, where he had been invited by students of the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Political Forum.
After meeting with students on campus, King had been due to deliver an address at Pickard Theater. But as word spread of the event, it became clear a larger venue would be needed. This is how a crowd of some 1,100 people came to be crammed into First Parish Church—located just off the northwest corner of campus—to hear King’s sermon.
Standing at the same pulpit King had occupied back in 1964, the Rev. John Allen described how the church overflowed that day and offered up a prayer of thanks, reminding the congregation of the power of King’s words.
Taking part in the service were two ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ senior vice presidents—Benje Douglas, head of the Office of Inclusion and Diversity, and Dean for Student Affairs Jim Hoppe—who participated in the litany of remembrance. In his remarks, Douglas talked about the sacrifices King made for his beliefs, particularly the ultimate sacrifice paid four years after coming to Brunswick, when King was assassinated in Memphis in 1968.
“At ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾, we don't ask students to make the ultimate sacrifice, obviously,” said Douglas, “but we do ask them to think critically about what they can do to build a better place for all members of the community.” One of the easiest things to sacrifice, he explained, is any sense of self-righteousness, “the idea that you're always right, and the people you disagree with are always wrong.” It’s important, he said, to accept that “not only are you not always right, but sometimes you can actually be wrong.” On this particular occasion, honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, we all need to sacrifice one specific thing, Douglas stressed, “which is the notion that we're done, because we’re not.”
This sentiment was echoed by the congregation, who responded in unison to the litany with the words of King himself: “We have come a long way. We have a long way to go.”
A Story Told
In a related event over the weekend, performing artist presented his latest work, The Malaga Ship: A Story of Maine and of the Middle Passage.
In a forty-five-minute solo featuring mime, song, dance, and narration, Rocha tells the story of the Malaga, a ship built in Brunswick in 1832. She was used in the illegal transatlantic slave trade for much of the nineteenth century, trafficking human cargo between Africa and the Americas. This included the transportation of slaves to Brazil, where Rocha was born and raised and where slavery was not abolished until 1888.