

 







Students and faculty gathered in the Pit on the Harrisburg campus on Thursday, January 28 for a two-hour Martin Luther King, Jr. tribute.The first portion of the tribute consisted of students and faculty sharing their personal thoughts on King and his influence on the Civil Rights Movement. Legal Writing Professor Starla Williams and 1st-year student Martin Banks both talked about their experiences the night that Martin Luther King, Jr. died. Associate Professor Michael Dimino, Sr. admired the way Martin Luther King, Jr. had achieved his goals without violence, and Distinguished Professor John Dernbach talked about how his family was concerned when he mentioned he planned on taking an African-American girl on a date in high school.The lecture was not limited to race though. Associate Professor Benjamin Barros discussed same sex marriage while Professor Michael Cozzillio talked about how his children described people by attributes such as their cool Nike sneakers instead of the color of their skin.The second portion of the tribute featured students from Professor Cozzillio’s seminar class reading portions of their papers addressing racial discrimination in the world of sports. The students included; Scott McPherson, who spoke about discrimination in NASCAR, Kathryn Schweitzer, who spoke on African American Females and Title IX, and Krista Deats, who spoke on “Separate but Equal in Sports.”The tribute concluded with Dean of Students Keith Sealing describing the achievements of Thomas Morris Chester, the first African-American to practice law in Dauphin County.