PNW welcomed the community to the commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the DSSAC on Jan. 16. Dion Campbell, senior Leader of Worldgate Centre for Life, welcomed all that attended the commemoration and introduced Garrard McClendon, assistant professor at Chicago State University, as the primary speaker for the event.

PNW is hosting a week-long celebration for Martin Luther King Jr. On Jan. 24, K-C Nat Turner, associate professor of Language, Literacy and Culture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is presenting a hip-hop peace jam workshop and competition for the public to promote unity. The Peace Jam will be held on the Westville campus at 1 p.m. in room 1155 in DSSAC. The event is also being held at 6 p.m. on the Hammond campus in Alumni Hall.

On Jan. 26, Turner will be speaking about King’s sermon, “Birth of A New Nation.” This discussion of creating equal human rights is being held on the Hammond Campus at 11 a.m. in the Alumni Hall.

During the commemoration, McClendon spoke to the community about King’s mission for unity. McClendon is a host on the show CounterPoint on Lakeshore Public Media on PBS.

“The inspiration comes from him [Martin Luther King Jr.], number one, being a martyr, but him being an educated man that felt that civil rights weren’t being given to a large portion of society,” McClendon said. “Today, we wanted to point out the fact that there was a much brighter, and much more pensive-thoughtful side, to Martin Luther King. That is what makes today such a wonderful day. Not just the ‘We Shall Overcome’ and ‘I Have A Dream’ King, but we also want to look at the meaner and the angrier side of King. That is I why speak today.”

Throughout the speech, McClendon stated that in order to obtain a realistic view of King, it is imperative to look at both the soft side of King and the darker side. The ‘I Have A Dream’ speech is just the surface of King.

“We have to realize that we can go forward because of what people have done in the past,” McClendon said. “I don’t get through college, I don’t have a Ph.D and I don’t get to live in a nice neighborhood without a Dr. Martin Luther King. I don’t take my middle-class status at this point for granted. It is because of people like Martin Luther King Jr. that I can fulfill the dreams I have in my own life.”

McClendon’s research led him to study a book dedicated to King’s writings called ”Testament of Hope.” This collection of writings has taught McClendon that King used the Bible and the United States Constitution to educate the public on what their rights were.

“Many times, people forget about what you have the opportunity to have, and so he would often quote not just from the Bible as a minister, but he would always quote from the United States Constitution. We are all citizens here. We all deserve equal rights,” McClendon said.

Campbell, a local marriage counselor and Michigan City police officer was requested to host PNW’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Breakfast. “In order to change life for a multitude of people, he [Martin Luther King] had to give his own life,” Campbell said.

At the end of the commemoration, McClendon offered advice to those who weren’t fully aware of the situation and the notable speech King gave that has allowed us to base our future off of.

“I want people to wake up. I want people to know that tomorrow is not promised and we cannot take for granted anything that we have and that we need to get in the streets and be freedom fighters,” McClendon said. “Women still do not have the rights that they deserve. Poor people still do not have the rights that they deserve. People of color still do not have the rights they deserve, so we have to start fighting for these, and keep fighting so that the masses of people and the public will realize that we have a long way to go.”