In observance of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday Portsmouth Abbey is honoring Dr. King in a number of ways this year. Rather than gathering for our customary tribute of recitations and video in the auditorium, COVID restrictions have inspired Fifth-Form students Alexis Buwembo, Hannah Gallagher, Onaedo Ogbuefi, Oluwadamilola Opawumi along with faculty, to create a presentation that will be viewed by the Abbey community from their dormitories and School offices. The video begins with a PowerPoint that chronicles Dr. King’s life and highlights his lifelong dedication to non-violent protest and the furthering of civil rights in the United States and around the world. Student volunteers created artwork to enhance the presentation and included an excerpt from one of Dr. King’s speeches. The 20-minute video concludes with remarks by The Very Reverend Michael Brunner O. S. B., who has been an advocate and participant in civil rights initiatives throughout his life.
In the classroom this week Dr. Billings’ Topics in Theology class are reading "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in connection with Plato's Crito with a discussion of the ethical question of Civil Disobedience. Our Humanities classes read “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” to analyze MLK’s letter through the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, whom Dr. King mentions and uses in his letter.
Also on campus, the iconic speeches that Dr. King delivered in the 1950s and ’60s are being shown in the School auditorium lobby and on science building screens throughout the day. There are quotes from Dr. King on each dining hall table, and a dress-down-day fundraiser has been organized by students to support the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Newport. Throughout this and upcoming weeks our Portsmouth Abbey student clubs will host service projects to commemorate Reverend King.