This year’s MLK Dream Week at The University of Texas at Dallas ended with a call to action to work toward achieving Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision for a “beloved community” that would replace racism, bigotry and prejudice with a spirit of oneness.
“Dr. King said creating the beloved community is about bridging the gaps between the haves and the have-nots with real opportunities. It’s about creating more of that precious commodity called hope,” said Dr. Froswa’ Booker-Drew, keynote speaker at the Jan. 20 virtual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Breakfast. Booker-Drew is vice president of community affairs and strategic alliances for the State Fair of Texas and founder and CEO of Soulstice Consultancy.
“I want you to think about how you go from being a bystander, where you’re watching things happen, to where you’ve become an upstander, a person who stands up when you see injustice and you hear people saying things that are not right,” Booker-Drew said.
The breakfast, co-sponsored by the Student Union & Activities Advisory Board and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, featured several speakers and a performance by Destiney Tolbert, assistant director of student success and outreach at the UT Dallas Multicultural Center, who sang “Amazing Grace.”
Dream Week, which followed the theme “The Urgency of Creating the Beloved Community,” was sponsored by the Multicultural Center and other University partners. The week also included a virtual Comets Cultural Conversations on Jan. 18 led by Booker-Drew.
As an alternative to in-person MLK Day of Service projects, University officials encouraged the community to begin taking action by volunteering for virtual service projects, including donating items to the UT Dallas Comet Cupboard, which provides weekly distributions of food and personal care items to enrolled students in need, and searching for opportunities through the EngageUTD program in the Office of Student Volunteerism.
Honoring Dr. King
Dr. Yvette E. Pearson, vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, closed the event by encouraging the audience to get involved.
“I want to challenge all of us as we leave here today. Let us not just think about, but decide and act upon, whatever role it is that we will play as individuals, organizations and as leaders toward the realization of the beloved community,” Pearson said. “The injustices that continue to occur throughout our society demonstrate that it is indeed urgent that we do so. We can each start where we are. The biggest takeaway is to make sure that we’re upstanders and not just bystanders.”