Starting around 1956 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began to call the world to create the “Beloved Community.” He explained: “I am not talking about some emotional bosh when I talk about love . . . you love those who don’t love you . . . because God loves.” King looks for the “type of love that can transform opposers into friends.” A love that empowered him to “Stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth.” King believed such love could empower Whites and Blacks together to end poverty and militarism and racism.
To acknowledge the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. (1929) we will post one “Beloved Community” text around campus each week and host conversations about what “Beloved Community” means for us at UDM as a University in Detroit. For more information, see: http://www.udmercy.edu/news_events/news/by-year/2014/files/01-14-MLK.htm
2014 is also the 100th birthday of poet and publisher, Dudley Randall. Because of his years in UDM’s library, the library is now one of the rare U.S. Literary Landmarks. To honor his role in the creation of a culture of Black poetry, at UDM, in Detroit, and nationally through Broadside Press, Rosemary Weatherston, Director: Dudley Randall Center for Print Culture, will guest edit one work day post each week in February. More details follow.
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Today’s post, Tuesday January 21
Beloved Community – Jan 21-24, 2014 — “The way of violence leads to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. But the way of nonviolence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community.” (Martin Luther King Jr. Autobiography, Chapter 13)
Have a good day,
john st sj