MLK Holiday: A day on, not off

In a sermon delivered just two months before his 1968 assassination, Martin Luther King, Jr., told his Ebenezer Baptist Church congregation, "He who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's your definition of greatness. It means that everybody can be great because everybody can serve. . . . (To serve) you need only a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love."

On January 20, Furman will heed the civil rights leader's call for service by celebrating the King holiday with the university's largest off-campus outreach project.

Organizers expect more than 400 faculty, staff and students to board buses at 2:45 p.m. to take part in a two-hour cleanup of the Greenline community, a 140-acre impoverished neighborhood off Wade Hampton Boulevard in Greenville.

Volunteers will do more than pick up trash, though. Employees from Facilities Services will be on hand to help with landscaping and minor house repairs.

"We're hoping that we can really make some physical, lasting changes in the neighborhood," says University Center Coordinator Nancy Cooper, who is helping to coordinate the effort. "We're going to roll up our sleeves and make an impact."

Each volunteer will be given a T-shirt, work gloves and trash bags. Buses will return to campus around 5 p.m. That evening Furman will host a tribute to King's legacy of equality and volunteerism. The hour-long event will begin at 8 p.m. in McAlister Auditorium and is open to the public.

The program will include musical performances, speeches and reflections on King's life. A video of King's "I have a dream" speech will also be shown, says Doug Cummins, chair of the Theatre Arts Department.

Cummins is putting the final touches on the program, which could include speeches from current and former Greenville mayors Knox White and Max Heller and musical performances by the Furman Gospel Ensemble, Tina Thompson-Broussard and the Bell Tower Boys.

"This tribute is going to be informative, educational and entertaining," says Cummins. "It going to be well worth the effort for people to attend."

The volunteer outreach and tribute ceremony is a departure from the way Furman has traditionally marked the King Holiday. In recent years, the Student League for Black Culture has sponsored a visiting lecturer.

This year's approach is more active, community-centered and a fitting tribute to King, a minister who preached volunteerism and activism, says Multicultural Affairs Director Idella Glenn.

"This introduces a service component to the holiday," says Glenn. "Martin Luther King Day should not be used as a reason to stay home from work or not to go to class. I tell our students that the King holiday is not a day off. It's a day on."

For more information about MLK Day events at Furman or to sign up for the community clean-up, call Nancy Cooper at extension 2071.