The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
Today’s social-justice activists continue to learn from the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. but they should not be limited by the cultural narratives applied to the slain civil rights leader.
“In Service: The Lesley MLK Celebration,” a virtual forum presented Jan. 25 by our Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Justice, featured a pair of Black activists in Boston who discussed their respective backgrounds, the ways Dr. King’s actions continue to influence the social-justice movement, and the challenges contemporary activists face.
“MLK’s legacy is rich with action and leading and trailblazing,” said Lamb Rahming, a self-described “queer preacher” and co-founder of Men of Melanin Magic, a social and support network for gay men of color. The former community minister for Sanctuary United Church of Christ, Rahming said “everyone has a ministry” to make change in the world, inside and outside of church walls.
“For me, ministry is just something you’re committed to in order to bring positive impact,” he said.
Fellow panelist Daunasia Yancey, founder of the e-commerce site Pay a Black Woman and a longtime activist who helped launch the Boston chapter of Black Lives Matter, added that those working for societal change need to practice self-care, as well a supporting each other. Her Pay a Black Woman site aims to support her and other women’s activism within the context of a capitalist system that leaves too many people of color behind.
“How do we dream a new world while still functioning in the confines of this one?” she said, adding that King’s own dream was cut short by white supremacy, even at the highest levels.
“White supremacy is deadly,” Yancey said. “There’s the long-term deadly and the short-term deadly. (King) is not here because of white supremacy and because of the US government.”
For that reason, Yancey and Rahming agreed, today’s activists shouldn’t be confined to Dr. King’s tactic of nonviolent resistance, and shouldn’t be shamed into what is promoted as the “right way” to protest injustice.
Both panelists liked Dr. King’s focus on the “fierce urgency of now,” and they each had advice and encouragement for student activists.
Rahming expressed the importance of “being coachable and not taking things personally,” and seeking out intergenerational conversations.
“You would be surprised by all the stories that are different from what you experienced and all that are similar,” he said.
“There’s space for everybody,” Yancey said, urging students to identify a social-justice passion that will sustain them in their activism, rather than “parachuting in” as part of an academic experience.
“A lot of people go to college and get radicalized but never bring that work home,” she said, adding that the commitment to justice must transcend a one-hour Zoom call.
