Insight: Voices in Action, A Celebration of Dr. King’s Legacy

By Bess McKinney, EICL Co-Coordinator

In 1963, as he was sitting in a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. King wrote, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. . . . Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of “people.” That letter, now known as “The Letter from Birmingham Jail,” was written during King’s eighteen-day incarceration for violating an “anti-protest” injunction. The injunction came as a result of protests planned by multiple groups and hundreds of people working together. After King was released, thousands of Black students joined the protests, fighting for desegregation, and, ultimately, justice.

In his letter, Dr. King was speaking, sixty-two years ago, to themes that are still critically important today—to the importance of connection, learning, and action. These are the themes of Voices in Action Day, 2024-25. On January 27th, the whole campus, fifth through twelve graders, and all faculty, will be taking a day out of our normal routine to learn, connect, and act.

As Mr. Uzwack, Dr. Stegeman, and Ms. Peeden noted in their Voices in Action Day email to the community last week, the vision for a day like this actually began five years ago, with another group of EPS students, students who are now off at college. They, together with faculty and staff, envisioned a day when we could contemplate our interconnection as a community and seek more compassion. We had to miss that day and lost that experience due to the COVID pandemic, like so much else. Last year, a group of students began to advocate for the renewal of the project, and over the last six months, student leaders have worked with a group of faculty to plan and coordinate workshops that has culminated in our plan for January 27.

I was recently talking with one of the alumni who was on the planning team for this day back in 2019. I asked him how he felt about hearing that we’re actually holding the day this year, five years later. He said, “Even though we were unable to experience it ourselves, it’s an honor to see it play out exactly the way we had hoped back in 2019.” And then he channeled Dr. King, and said, “if anything, it reminds me that even though change may feel slow, it’s days like these that make it evident that change is still happening.” True. And it takes us slowing down, having a day out of the norm, listening to, learning from, connection with and taking action for and with each other to create the change we want to see in this world.