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MLK celebrations reflect on Dominican history in civil rights movement
Dominican sisters Sisters Mary O'Donnell, Jeanne Crapo and Clemente Davlin helped keep the peace in Chicago's west side during the racial unrest there that arose in March 1965. PHOTO: Josh Hawkins/Wednesday Journal
Dominican University celebrated the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. the weeks of January 16 and 23 with a day of service, a wide ranging Teach-In and a lecture by Sister Jamie Phelps, former director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University. The celebration continued an almost 50-year university tradition of commemorating the work and life of Dr. King.

The Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters have long supported civil rights, social justice and diversity. In the 1960s, the sisters participated in civil rights demonstrations in Chicago and on March 7, 1965, several of our sisters staged a protest in solidarity with the Montgomery to Selma, Alabama march for voting rights, a day that would become known as “Bloody Sunday.”

The sisters, dressed in full habit, led a silent march with almost 500 students and faculty from campus to the Oak Park post office—along the route, Dominican’s beloved Sister Jeanne Crapo was shoved from the sidewalk into the street.

In 1966, Dominican sisters, who had formed relationships with residents of Chicago’s west side while teaching Sunday morning Bible school, were asked by parents to help restore peace when tensions were aroused by the Chicago Freedom Movement. Our sisters were also involved in social outreach programs for black children, bringing them to campus for activities, including swimming, when the children were prohibited from swimming in Chicago public pools.

Click here to read a Wednesday Journal story about the protest.

While the university has been presenting activities to commemorate Dr. King for several decades, last year the President’s Cabinet declared Martin Luther King Day an official holiday, in the hope that students, faculty and staff would honor his legacy by providing service to their communities.

“The idea is not to just give everyone a day off, but to call off classes because of what Martin Luther represented. It is intended as a day of service,” Hugh McElwain, theology professor and former dean of students, explained.

For the past two years on Martin Luther King Day, MaDonna Thelen, director of service learning, has invited students, faculty and staff to participate in service projects in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood. This year, Dominican volunteers worked on mural painting and construction projects at Henry Ford Powerhouse Academy.

“It was a great opportunity and a great day of service,” said Thelen. “We were united with others in honoring Dr. King and painted inspirational quotes on the school’s walls and created signs beautifying the building.”

Thelen was one of 16 faculty who participated in the university’s first Teach-In on January 17 and 18, during which faculty drew connections between their respective fields and focused their class times on topics relevant to Dr. King.

More than 400 students took advantage of classes on topics such as “King’s Role in the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike (Germaine Goetz Sota), “King’s ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail’” (Joseph Heininger), “King and Vietnam: From Domestic Rights to Foreign Policy” (David Dolence) and “ World Poverty and Inequality, Definitions, Statistics and Implications: How Have Things Changed Since the 1960s?” (Kathleen Odell).

“The Teach-In helped the Dominican community remember and better understand King’s work from a variety of different perspectives. It was valuable for faculty and students to devote the time to this exercise,” said Norah Collins, associate dean of students.

The culminating event of the university’s commemoration of Dr. King was the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture on January 24. Sister Jamie Phelps, a founding member of the Washington-based National Black Sisters Conference and The Institute of Black Catholics Studies, delivered a lecture titled “Global Diversity and Human Rights in the 21st Century: What Would Martin Luther King Jr. Think?”

During her lecture, Sr. Phelps validated the common criticism that King was not perfect. “But we should feel hopeful in King’s imperfection because it proves that one need not be perfect in order to make a difference in the world. Dr. King was a prophet and prophets are not chosen by God because they are perfect—but because they can get the job done,” she said.

She claimed that, were he alive today, Dr. King would still be focusing on issues of race, poverty and peace. “Poverty is the state of the majority of the people in the world. And as people in the middle class are trying to decide which bills they are going to pay at the end of the month, the middle class is getting poor. Almost 21,000 children around the world die each day from poverty, hunger and easily preventable disease. King would still be addressing this issue,” she said.

She discussed King’s opposition to the Vietnam War and the criticism he received for this because many felt that it was distracting from the civil rights struggle. “King realized that the Vietnam War was taking a disproportionate number from the ranks of the poor. And the war machine is still cruelly manipulating the poor today,” she said.

Phelps stressed that the struggle for justice has many points of entry. “But it’s still about every man, woman and child having access to food, clothing and shelter. Dr. King spoke to the oneness of us all. We are all called to be the Kingdom of God on earth. All humans should work toward creating a more just and humane world.”

Sr. Phelps’ lecture joined a long list of prestigious guest speakers for the annual Martin Luther King Lecture, including in 2001 a relatively unknown Illinois state senator named Barack Obama.

The Martin Luther King Jr. celebration provided a rich opportunity for the Dominican community to reflect on King’s legacy and the university mission, which King surely would have embraced.