On Friday, Dec. 5, a group of students and faculty and staff members gathered in front of Elizabethtown College’s High Library for a time of peaceful solidarity.
Amy Milligan, visiting assistant professor of Women and Gender Studies, helped organize the event. She explained that she’s a social activist at heart, so she thought that creating some space for peaceful solidarity was an important response to recent incidents in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City. She spoke with some colleagues and students and took her idea to members of the MLK committee to ask if they would be interested as individuals, not as a committee, in joining. From there, emails were circulated, social media posts made.
“It was really important to me, personally, that this be a moment of peaceful solidarity — that we weren’t pointing fingers or throwing accusations … and that we really use it as a time to talk about the racism that exists in our country including but not limited to recent incidents,” explained Milligan in an email. “It was a very grassroots approach, which is typical for how I approach responses like this.”
The group of about 50 assembled at noon; some carried signs with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Milligan said she extended a welcome to the group and guided it through 4.5 minutes of silence, which, she said, represented the 4.5 hours of Michael Brown’s body lying on the ground. Although it wasn’t planned, Milligan said that, slowly, several individuals lay on the ground as part of the circle.
“This visual was chilling,” she said. “We stood in the icy rain silently for nearly five minutes, looking at the bodies of our community on the ground, and feeling the weight of the moment.”
… our time together was not an end but a beginning of important conversations.”
After the moment of silence, Milligan said she asked students to share their thoughts and feelings. Then, faculty and staff members shared their own stories, poems, hopes and dedication to change. Milligan said the event culminated with a call to action.
“… that our time together was not an end but a beginning of important conversations,” she said. “Eric Garner’s last words were ‘I can’t breathe’ and many of us vowed to use our breath to be a voice for social justice and equality.”
After the event, Milligan said several people stayed behind “to talk and process the emotions we were all feeling.” She added that the Chaplain’s Office opened its Sacred Space so that those who were interested could go there for reflection. Others had to go to class or back to work; however, about 10 students remained with her for nearly two hours, afterward.
“We ate lunch together and spent time talking about their feelings, stories, ideas and personal commitments. It was truly one of the most inspirational moments of my life as I listened to them talk about their personal commitments to active peacemaking,” she said. “They articulated deep understanding of intersectionality — that we cannot ask for equality for one group without demanding it for everyone. I was so profoundly proud of them!”
(Photos courtesy of Rita Shah)