Remembering the dream
Human Rights Education Institute, Executive Director Jeanette Laster stands in front of a mural Monday, of Martin Luther King Jr. in the lobby of the center following a presentation for MLK Day. Celebrating diversity and human rights is the focus, rather than focusing only on the human struggle, Laster said.
ELLI GOLDMAN HILBERT/Press
COEUR d’ALENE — The Human Rights Education Institute live-streamed “A Dream Remembered” in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday.
About 100 people virtually joined HREI Executive Director Jeanette Laster for the discussion. Scholars and artists shared words of inspiration, song, dance and poetry in honor of Dr. King and his support of justice and equality.
“America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay,” said Dr. Scott Finnie, program director and senior faculty of Africana studies at Eastern Washington University. “If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element, which is justice."
The Civil Rights Act in 1964, signified the end of 345 years of “government-endorsed separation by skin color,” Finnie said.
Dr. King was not only speaking to racial segregation but to underlying issues that go deeper than skin color, Finnie said.
“Dr. King was going after the venom behind Jim Crow, and that venom is this myth of inferiority,” Finnie said. “He had to change the situation outwardly and also change the perception inwardly."
Finnie praised the power of Dr. King’s words to inspire, to empower and to immobilize African Americans to change their situation outwardly.
“He empowered African Americans to look at themselves on their own terms and conditions, not from those on the outside,” Finnie said.
Freda Gandy, executive director of the Martin Luther King Community Center in Spokane, was Finnie’s student as a 21-year-old entering Eastern Washington University, many years ago. The inclusion and support she felt then has inspired her life’s work at the MLK Community Center.
“Walking into Dr. Finnie’s class and seeing another person of color, and other students of color made me feel welcome here in Spokane and made me feel a sense of pride to be here,” Gandy said.
Gandy and her staff provide support for youth, families and the elderly. The staff is diverse, matching the multi-ethnic population they serve, Gandy said.
“With us not being able to have a rally and a march this year, I thank you for allowing us to gather in this (virtual) space to honor Dr. King, and to talk about history,” Gandy said. “By doing this, his death wasn’t in vain."
HREI will take the material presented today and use it to further Dr. King’s message locally through education, Laster said.
“We try to share ideas that parents can use to engage with their students,” Laster said. “Remembering the dream even while the work is being done, to take steps toward progress, which sometimes seems very hard."
The social climate the past few years has been challenging, Laster said. HREI is committed to progress in the community.
“As we prepare for more diversity and for our work around equality, it’s important to pace ourselves, because the world changes every day," she said. "We have to continue to progress as we move through history.”
HREI offers a “Martin Luther King Traveling Trunk” filled with interactive learning tools, materials and activities that teachers, parents and home-school groups may check out. The institute is preparing for Black History Month in February.