Fort Lewis College students, faculty members and Durangoans marked the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday on campus with a march, music and open-mic commentaries.

College President Dene Kay Thomas was in the forefront of the march that took more than 100 present-day foot soldiers of the move for equality from the Center of Southwest Studies to the Student Union.

Along the way, they sang “We Shall Overcome,” the civil-rights anthem derived from an early-day gospel song.

Thomas told those gathered in the Student Union that ”We Shall Overcome” is sung today under different conditions than existed in the Civil Rights Era of the 1950s and 1960s. There is less to fear today, she said.

“The battle for civil rights goes on, of course, and we must strive for acceptance of all those of us who differ (from) the majority in terms of ethnic, racial or sexual identity,” Thomas said.

An 80-member choir under the direction of Charissa Chiaravalloti, director of choral activities on campus, sang “MLK” by U2, followed by the foot-stomping “Tshotsholoza,” so popular in South Africa that it’s considered the nation’s second national anthem.

Jennifer Stohlman, academic director at the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi, was the first open-mic speaker.

She urged listeners to recommit themselves to wiping out discrimination and to adopt a new approach when encountering oppression.

“Too often we are quick to punish, exile, embarrass,” Stohlman said. “Far from encouraging equity, the tactic more often encourages those individuals to confirm their hatred and discourages the acceptance of difference.

“We should think about how we can better understand the context of a situation,” Stohlman said. “In this line of thinking, we accept that we have all been victimizers and victims and understand that our definitions of community must be expanded.”

King, a Baptist minister, became an activist and civil-rights advocate early in his career. He led the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference two years later.

In 1963, he helped organize the march on Washington where he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. He continued to participate in marches and protests, expanding his cause to include combatting poverty and opposition to the Vietnam War.

King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, four years before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day was made a federal holiday in 1986.

About 15 people followed Stohlman to the microphone.

Diana Yellow, a junior at FLC majoring in public health, read a poem she wrote. It said in part: “The dreams of my heart, the desires of my heart are human kindness, human regard for those who have less than those who have more.”

Brad Abeyta, an FLC junior majoring in theater, introduced himself as a white, heterosexual male who mistakenly assumed the rights he enjoyed as such applied to everyone.

Abeyta said later that he’s from Arvada, a “whitewashed” city much like Durango. He didn’t become aware of race and gender discrimination until he became involved in theater, which he described as a melting pot.

Carin Andersson, an exchange student from Sweden, was astonished by the open mic.

“We don’t have anything like that,” she said.

She said tension has arisen in Sweden with the influx of Iraqi and Iranian refugees.

“But it’s taboo to talk about such things,” she said.

T.J. Trump, a junior majoring in world history, said he hopes the solidarity march and open mic at FLC and demonstrations across the United States will spark similar movements around the world.

Travis Piña, a sophomore studying theater, sang his sentiments.

In a fine baritone, he sang “The Impossible Dream” from the musical “Man of La Mancha.”

The lyrics say in part: “This is my quest, to follow that star no matter how hopeless, no matter how far. To fight for the right, without question or pause to be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause.”

daler@durangoherald.com