'The battle belongs to you': The necessity of the younger generation in the fight for equality
'The battle belongs to you': The necessity of the younger generation in the fight for equality
Pamela D.C. Junior highlighted the power that the voice of the younger generation holds during her speech that commemorated the work of Martin Luther King Jr.
Every year on the third Monday of January we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, or MLK Day for short. This is to commemorate the life of Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent leader in the Civil Rights Movement who voraciously spent his life fighting against racial discrimination and segregation.
An important thing to note is that he led the movement with nonviolent activism at the forefront. His advocacy for peaceful protesting goes hand in hand with the Mennonite belief in pacifism, an ideal that Bethel College upholds as a school centered around the Mennonite religion.
It has become a Bethel tradition to host some type of speech or commemoration on MLK day to honor the work that MLK did. In fact, MLK himself spoke at Bethel in Memorial Hall in 1960 and gave a speech titled “The Future of Integration.”
This year to celebrate MLK, Bethel hosted historian, activist, and motivational speaker from Jackson, Miss. Pamela D.C. Junior.
During the first part of her speech, she highlighted the famous “I Have a Dream” speech which was given during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963.
“Most of us have heard this amazing speech, and likely there are pieces of this speech that resonate unto the deepest parts of our souls,” said Junior when highlighting the importance of the speech. She also emphasized how the speech resonated with the listeners, and offered hope since many of them felt like their voices were finally being heard.
“Most of us have heard this amazing speech, and likely there are pieces of this speech that resonate unto the deepest parts of our souls.”
Pamela D.C. Junior
Junior also shared a story of a 13-year-old boy, Hezekiah Watkins, who went to see the Freedom Riders but was arrested and taken to the state penitentiary, and put on death row.
“After seven days they brought him back to Jackson, Mississippi. His mama had no idea in those seven days where her 13-year-old boy was. She thought he was deceased.”
Junior shared that after this incident, Watkins went on to be arrested 102 more times. This, she said, was because of how major of an impact Martin Luther King Jr. had on his community and those he was fighting for.
Throughout her speech, she emphasized the endless thought, organization, and work that was put into the movement, and repeatedly said the phrase, “organize, strategize, mobilize.”
To demonstrate the prevalence of racial violence, hate crimes, and segregation in society today, Junior spoke of the lynchings that occurred in Mississippi as recently as 2011. Initially, people seem confused by how recently the last lynching occurred and ask her again when the last actual lynching occurred. In response to this, Junior goes into more depth explaining that lynching is a hate crime, put together by a mob without legal approval, and therefore emphasizes just how many hate crimes are still happening.
Junior concluded her speech by speaking of the importance and necessity of the younger generation. Speaking to the majority college-aged audience, she emphasized how we can’t get comfortable because there is still so much left to fight for.
“Young people, the battle belongs to you, go back to your communities. Bring back the vibrancies of your neighborhood. Fight for the rights of women, fight the rights of minorities, fight for the rights of all people.”
Pamela D.C. Junior
She stressed this point, telling the audience, specifically the students of Bethel College, “Young people, the battle belongs to you, go back to your communities. Bring back the vibrancies of your neighborhood. Fight for the rights of women, fight the rights of minorities, fight for the rights of all people.”