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NORTH MANCHESTER – On Feb. 1, 1968, people braved cold rain, blustery wind, and the backlash of a sharply divided community to file into the Manchester College gym to hear the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speak.
On Thursday, students, staff and members of the public once again braved bad weather to hear King’s words, to celebrate his visit and to acknowledge the changes King’s work brought to the country.
The North Manchester college’s convocation ceremony featured music, filmed portions of King’s speech and the recollections of people who heard King speak that day.
The speakers emphasized the controversy that King’s visit caused in the North Manchester community, and how people across the country were similarly divided about King’s message of racial integration, economic equality and peace.
President Jo Young Switzer, who was a student at Manchester in 1968, said she had no idea that campus officials had received threats of violence over King’s visit.
To help ensure the safety of those who would gather in the gym, some Manchester College professors spent the night before King’s visit guarding the building.
Switzer said she knew some students were unhappy that King was coming.
“One of the blessings of my life is I was one of those intensely excited students,” she said.
King was an agent of change at a time when hate and fear were overt, Switzer said.
“His message made an enormous impact on our lives,” she said.
Although King would be assassinated only two months after his Manchester College visit, his work led to changes in laws and how people live.
“We did not know in 1968 how profound his message would be,” Switzer said.
Kenneth L. Brown, professor emeritus of peace studies and philosophy, also spoke.
Brown, who was teaching at the campus in 1968, said King was elegant and inspirational.
“It was a great day for Manchester,” Brown said.
Ultimately, Brown hoped that King left the campus realizing that many there embraced the same love of peace and diversity.
“I would like to think that he left this place enlightened by kindred souls,” Brown said.
A grainy film of King’s Manchester College appearance was shown, and after the film, the choir and the audience joined voices to sing “We Shall Overcome.”
Halfway into the song, audience members began to stand.
Within minutes, nearly everyone in the auditorium stood as they sang “we shall live in peace someday.”
Alan and Marilyn Kieffaber were among the first to stand.
A retired minister, Alan Kieffaber said he “couldn’t stand to sit” through the song.
Kieffaber said he was among the thousands who marched in the last leg of King’s march from Selma to Birmingham, Ala., in March 1965. Marilyn Kieffaber is a seasoned war protester.
The couple said they wished the country could have made more progress toward the peaceful world King envisioned.
“It seems like we haven’t come far,” Alan Kieffaber said.
bmanley@jg.net
