UA speaker urges progress against racism

MLK’s dreams not yet fully realized, activist says at vigil

While progress toward the vision of Martin Luther King Jr. has undeniably been made during the past six decades, his dreams have not all been realized, and “radical reimagining” is required to conquer racism in America, said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter.

America has not “dealt with its issues around race and racism, [but] I refuse to accept that racism will always be” present in the country, said Brown, whose voting rights group has been noted for its efforts in several Southern states, including U.S. Senate elections in Alabama and Georgia. “You don’t have to agree with them, but all people should feel valued and respected.”

“We should feel uncomfortable right now” with the state of the country, added Brown, who has a long history of activism and nonprofit work. “Things that don’t evolve don’t live — they die — [so we need to ask] what do we want, as citizens, of our country?”

Brown was the featured speaker Monday at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s annual noonday vigil for MLK Day, which was held virtually. Last year’s featured speaker for the event was philosopher, educator and activist Cornel West, who is now running for president of the United States as an independent candidate.

The university’s Associated Student Government, Distinguished Lectures Committee, and Black Students Association partnered to organize Monday’s event. The vigil is typically conducted on campus, but it became a virtual event this year due to forecasts of snow and dangerously low temperatures in Northwest Arkansas.

Though King’s emphasis on “love” is emphasized by many today, they too often forget what love truly meant to King, Brown said. “When you really love something, you do right by it and take care of it.”

Brown is a native of Selma, Ala., which played a major role in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Marching activists were attacked by law enforcement around the Edmund Pettus Bridge that leads out of downtown Selma on “Bloody Sunday” in March 1965, and — two days later — King led a symbolic march across the bridge before another march later that month from Selma to the state’s capital of Montgomery, which attracted

thousands of followers.

While there are limits to the impact of voting, it is a valuable tool, and people see the power of voting when it’s connected to things they care about, said Brown, who has helped to raise millions of dollars for a variety of causes that advance human rights and civil liberties. “Everybody cares about something.”

Brown, who received the 2010 White House Champion of Change Award, views low voter turnout not as “apathy,” but as an effect of people feeling their vote makes no difference and/or being misinformed, she said. Her organization prizes listening — “you’d be amazed at how many people are not listened to” — then inspiring voting by noting “every aspect of life is impacted by public policy.”

Brown is dismayed by much of what she hears, at least initially, from people, who often mimic talking points they’ve heard from politicians and/or partisan media, she said. “There’s no original thought,” and too many Americans see a “zero-sum game,” where if those unlike them make gains, it’s considered a “loss” for them.

Rather than focus on differences, Americans need to see the “humanity” of one another, she said. However, the nation’s history of devaluing the humanity of Black people and others requires “reimagination” of institutions.

She’s optimistic due to today’s youth, who are less prejudiced and more willing to challenge the “status quo,” she said. However, it’s imperative to build replacements for any institutions that are “torn down.”

King was never satisfied with the “status quo,” either, and he “worked tirelessly” to hold the country’s leaders to the nation’s original promises of equality, said Charles Robinson, the first Black person to serve as chancellor of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, which dates back more than 150 years. He was “a true American, an active and dutiful citizen.”

As for Brown, she pointed out that love and power are inextricably linked, as “we want our community to have power, rooted in the foundation of love,” she said. “Power without love is reckless and abusive, [and] my love should lead me to want the liberation of all people.”

Brown is “a visionary” who inspires everyone she talks to, said UA-Fayetteville student Laney Kellybrew, who is studying journalism, writes for the student newspaper, and moderated Monday’s discussion with Brown. Kellybrew admires Brown and “what she’s done for political mobilization,” especially in the Black community.

She added that Black women have traditionally “punched above their weight” in terms of exercising their right to vote — as well as organizing — and Brown concurred, noting it’s a matter of “survival.”

Black women sit at the “intersection of race and gender,” racism and sexism, Brown added. Black women “have fought our way out of the corner.”

Brown is “truly inspiring,” and “we all need to ask ourselves how far we’ve come” on the path prescribed by King, said Lindsey Leverett-Higgins, president of the NWA MLK Council. “What does his dream look like today?”

Barriers “that still divide us” must be broken down, she added. “We must commit to continuous learning and self-reflection [to] make equality not just a dream, but a lived reality.”

Robinson and other university leaders are committed to increasing access for students and creating a better sense of belonging for everyone on campus, he said. “We will do our best to level the playing field of opportunity” so students who come from backgrounds with less resources are not doomed to less successful outcomes than their classmates.