A Look Back to 1968: Ohio Northern Remembers Dr. Martin Luther King.

Dr. King giving his speech at Ohio Northern

Martin Luther King Jr. was an influential speaker for the civil rights movement during the 1960’s. He made several stops across the country in order to convey a message of peace and neutrality to the masses. One of his stops on his tours was to Ohio Northern University in Ada Ohio. Dr. King came to Northern due to a labor strike with the Lima garbage collectors. The audience attending ranged from the students and faculty of the university to the members of the strike as well as the members of the labor strike going on in Lima. The speech was held in the Taft Gymnasium of the university on January 11^th 1968. About four months later, Dr. King was assassinated in Atlanta Georgia due to his participation in the fight for the rights of African Americans. With Ohio Northern being one of the last stops that Dr. King made on his speaking tour, the university has made a point on memorializing his teachings and speech on campus. It was for this reason the university decided to hold a speaking panel in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King and his teachings.

The panel for Dr. King was held at the English Chapel on the campus of Ohio Northern. The venue for this event was less than 100 yards away from the original site of the speech. The main reason for the event being held this year is the fact that it is the 50^th anniversary of Dr. King’s speech on the campus. The panel held in honor of this speech consisted of members of the community that work in areas that involve civil rights. The panelists were Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan Jr, Amber Basares, Brittany Moore, Jerome Gray, and the head of the communications department. The panel was structured as more of a question and answer with the experts that were present for the panel. The questions asked to the panelists ranged from their involvement with the community to how students at Northern could become active in terms of social issues. The panel also included a video interview with two social working students at Ohio State. These two students answered questions that differed from those asked to the panelists present at the discussion, but they were still valid questions for the topic of the panel. The panelists all provided thoughtful answers to the questions that were asked, and often included quotes from the teachings of Dr. King. After the panel questioning had officially drawn to a close, the guests were asked questions from the audience. The event lasted approximately an hour, and was filmed by the University in order for the discussion to be accessible by anybody who wished to see it.

If you wish to see the entire event, please check the Ohio Northern University web page for the full film of the event. If you wish to see the cliff-notes version of the discussion with the panel, a live tweet of the event can be seen on the twitter account @KevinHe42773793.