Becoming the Beloved Community (2018)

Becoming

SPONSORS Auburn University Office of Inclusion and Diversity Auburn University College of Liberal Arts Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities

#MLK50

PARTNERS

theBeloved

Community

Auburn University Becoming the Beloved Team Auburn University Black Student Union Auburn University Muslim Students’ Union Auburn University Wesley Foundation Tuskegee University Wesley Foundation Macon County Ministers’ Council Auburn Ministerial Association Johnny Green, PhD, Auburn University, Vice President of Student Affairs

Sponsored by the Office of Inclusion & Diversity, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities and the College of Liberal Arts

The Rev. Dr. John Wells Warren, Priest and Chaplain, Auburn University St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church Mark Wilson, PhD, Director, Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities John Blanding, President, Auburn University Black Student Union Jarel Fryer, Auburn University Senior, President, Harold A. Franklin Society

WEDNESDAY, WEDNESDAY, COMMEMORATINGTHURSDAY, THE THURSDAY, April 4, 2018 April50TH 4, 2018 April ANNIVERSARY OF 5, 2018 1 – 2 p.m. 5, | Pebble Hill** 5:30 p.m. THE | Haley Concourse 1:30OF– 5:30 April 2018 ASSASINATION THEp.m. | JCSM* 1:30-5:30 p.m. | JCSM SARAH COLLINS-RUDOLPH Fifty Years Later:1968 –2018 Race and Faith in the U.S.

REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

MARCH TO LANGDON HALL Q & A with Sarah Collins-Rudolph | Langdon Hall

INTERGENERATIONAL, INTERDISCIPLINARY Candle Light Vigil | Samford Hall Survivor of the bombing of the 16 7:05 p.m. | Samford Hall’s bells will Baptist Church in Birmingham &StreetINTERFAITH DISCUSSIONS PANEL chime toAND commemorate the time King th

JCSM.AUBURN.EDU

and sister of Addie Mae Collins, one of the four little girls killed in the bombing

was assassinated in Memphis, TN, in 1968.

Dr. Wayne Flynt, *Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art Professor Emeritus ** 101 S. Debardeleben Street Auburn University Department of History

INTERGENERATIONAL, INTERDISCIPLINARY & INTERFAITH DISCUSSIONS AND PANEL

Dr. Wayne Flynt, professor emeritus Auburn University Department of History Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, III, senior pastor

Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Senior TrinityIII, United Church ofPastor Christ in Chicago Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago

Intergenerational, Interdisciplinary & Interfaith Dialogue Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art

“The Beloved Community” is a term the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., popularized when he addressed Civil Rights supporters at the end of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956 by declaring ending segregation was not the only goal but rather “the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption, the end is the creation of the beloved community.”

According to thekingcenter.org, King’s Beloved Community is “a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood.”

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright day of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

– The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

Scott Bishop, PhD Curator, Jule Collins Smith Museum

Welcome

Taffye Clayton, PhD Associate Provost and Vice President Auburn University Office of the Inclusion and Diversity

Opening Remarks

Giovanni Summerfield, PhD College of Liberal Arts, Associate Dean for Educational Affairs Auburn University

Greetings

Joan R. Harrell, DMIN, MDiv, MS Visiting Assistant Professor Auburn University School of Communication and Journalism

Moderator

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s Legacy in the 21st Century World of Diversity, Interfaith and Inclusion Wayne Flynt, PhD Professor Emeritus, Auburn University, Department of History Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III Senior Pastor, Trinity United Church of Chicago

What is the Meaning of Love, Hope, and Justice?

Mohammed Owasi Patel President, Auburn University Muslim Student’s Association

Perspective

Rev. Dr. Anna Crews Camphouse Lead Pastor, Auburn Wesley Cooperative Parish

Community Engagement

Keith S. Hebert, PhD Assistant Professor and Public History Program Officer Auburn University Department of History

Memorializing Our Stories

Elijah Gaddis, PhD Assistant Professor, Auburn University Department of History

Memorializing Our Stories

Where Do We Go from Here?

Rev. Dr. Joan R. Harrell

The Community and Next Steps Closing Remarks

Dr. Wayne Flynt Born Oct. 4, 1940, in Pontotoc, Mississippi. Grew up primarily in Alabama and graduated from Anniston High School in 1958.

Attended Samford University as a ministerial student; double majored in History and Speech. Attended graduate school at Florida State University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1965 in American History.

Of his thirteen books (three co-authored), two deal with Florida politics, three with evangelical religion, three with poverty, and three are broad surveys of Alabama history, including his two most acclaimed, POOR BUT PROUD: ALABAMA’S POOR WHITES, and ALABAMA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. His memoir entitled, KEEPING THE FAITH, was published in 2011, and his newest book, SOUTHERN RELIGION AND CHRISTIAN DIVERSITY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY was published in July, 2016. Two of his books have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and one won the Lillian Smith Award for non-fiction (the oldest and most highly regarded book prize in the South, given by the Southern Regional Council). Two of his books have won the Alabama Library Association prize for best works of non-fiction, three times he has won the James Sulzby book award for best work on Alabama history (awarded by the Alabama Historical Association), and three times the University of Alabama Press has bestowed the McMillan prize on his manuscripts as the best received in history.

Flynt is a community activist, serving for a decade on the American Cancer Society’s Committee for the Socio-economically Disadvantaged, was a co-founder of both the Alabama Poverty Project (now called ALABAMA POSSIBLE) and Sowing Seeds of Hope (Perry County). He has also served on the boards of Voices for Alabama’s Children and the A+ education reform coalition. In 1993 he served at the request of Gov. James E. Folsom, Jr. and Circuit Judge Eugene Reese as the court facilitator in the Alabama equity funding lawsuit. Honors and awards: selection in 1992 by the Mobile Register as Alabamian of the Year; Friend of the

Children Award by Children’s Hospital of Alabama in 1994; Child Advocacy Award by the Alabama Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics in 2000; Clarence Cason Award for Nonfiction by the University of Alabama in 2002; Hugo Black Award for service to Alabama and the nation, University of Alabama, 2003; inducted into Communications Hall of Fame at University of Alabama, 2005; inducted into Alabama Academy of Honor (100 living Alabamians) in 2006; Judson-Rice Award by the national news journal BAPTISTS TODAY for a Baptist leader who has “demonstrated significant leadership skills while maintaining the highest integrity;” Leadership Alabama Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007. In 2008 Flynt received the Bailey Thomson Award from Alabama Citizens for Constitution Reform, the Birmingham Pledge Lifetime Service Award, and the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year by the Florida State University History Department.

Flynt has also been the subject of two Alabama Public Television documentaries and in 2000 was awarded Doctor of Humane Letters, by Samford University.

During his 40 year teaching career at Samford and Auburn universities, he won 18 teaching awards, including top teaching honors at Samford and for the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn and among the graduate faculty at Auburn. Three times history graduate students at Auburn named him best professor. In 1971 he was a finalist in the Danforth Foundation’s competition for the top 12 professors in an American college or university. In 1991 he was chosen Professor of the Year for Alabama by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. In 2014, the Alabama College English Teachers Association awarded him the Eugene Current Garcia Award for outstanding teaching and writing.

During his career he taught more than 6,000 undergraduates, directed 42 master’s theses and 26 doctoral dissertations.

Flynt has been invited to lecture about his favorite novel, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD,and its author, at universities and “Big Read” programs in cities across America and around the world.

In January, 2016, he was inducted, along with Harper Lee, into Alabama’s Black Belt Hall of Fame. He has also been invited to lecture at Cambridge and Oxford universities, the University of Sussex, Queens University (Northern Ireland), University of Hull, University of Vienna, University of Szechuan, China, at the Roosevelt Center in the Netherlands, in Denmark, at a number of universities in India, and on ABC Radio Australia’s nationwide “Book Club”. He was research scholar for a semester at Hong Kong Baptist University and also served a semester as Eudora Welty Visiting Scholar of Southern Studies at Millsap College, Jackson, MS. Flynt is active in a number of professional organizations, six of which have honored him with their highest awards for service.

In 2003-04 he served as president of the Southern Historical Association, the largest professional organization devoted to the study of southern history and culture, with some 5,000 members worldwide. He was founding general editor of the online Encyclopedia of Alabama from which he retired in September 2008.

Dr. Wayne Flynt Born Oct. 4, 1940, in Pontotoc, Mississippi. Grew up primarily in Alabama and graduated from Anniston High School in 1958.

Attended Samford University as a ministerial student; double majored in History and Speech. Attended graduate school at Florida State University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1965 in American History.

Of his thirteen books (three co-authored), two deal with Florida politics, three with evangelical religion, three with poverty, and three are broad surveys of Alabama history, including his two most acclaimed, POOR BUT PROUD: ALABAMA’S POOR WHITES, and ALABAMA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. His memoir entitled, KEEPING THE FAITH, was published in 2011, and his newest book, SOUTHERN RELIGION AND CHRISTIAN DIVERSITY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY was published in July, 2016. Two of his books have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and one won the Lillian Smith Award for non-fiction (the oldest and most highly regarded book prize in the South, given by the Southern Regional Council). Two of his books have won the Alabama Library Association prize for best works of non-fiction, three times he has won the James Sulzby book award for best work on Alabama history (awarded by the Alabama Historical Association), and three times the University of Alabama Press has bestowed the McMillan prize on his manuscripts as the best received in history.

Flynt is a community activist, serving for a decade on the American Cancer Society’s Committee for the Socio-economically Disadvantaged, was a co-founder of both the Alabama Poverty Project (now called ALABAMA POSSIBLE) and Sowing Seeds of Hope (Perry County). He has also served on the boards of Voices for Alabama’s Children and the A+ education reform coalition. In 1993 he served at the request of Gov. James E. Folsom, Jr. and Circuit Judge Eugene Reese as the court facilitator in the Alabama equity funding lawsuit. Honors and awards: selection in 1992 by the Mobile Register as Alabamian of the Year; Friend of the

Children Award by Children’s Hospital of Alabama in 1994; Child Advocacy Award by the Alabama Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics in 2000; Clarence Cason Award for Nonfiction by the University of Alabama in 2002; Hugo Black Award for service to Alabama and the nation, University of Alabama, 2003; inducted into Communications Hall of Fame at University of Alabama, 2005; inducted into Alabama Academy of Honor (100 living Alabamians) in 2006; Judson-Rice Award by the national news journal BAPTISTS TODAY for a Baptist leader who has “demonstrated significant leadership skills while maintaining the highest integrity;” Leadership Alabama Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007. In 2008 Flynt received the Bailey Thomson Award from Alabama Citizens for Constitution Reform, the Birmingham Pledge Lifetime Service Award, and the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year by the Florida State University History Department.

Flynt has also been the subject of two Alabama Public Television documentaries and in 2000 was awarded Doctor of Humane Letters, by Samford University.

During his 40 year teaching career at Samford and Auburn universities, he won 18 teaching awards, including top teaching honors at Samford and for the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn and among the graduate faculty at Auburn. Three times history graduate students at Auburn named him best professor. In 1971 he was a finalist in the Danforth Foundation’s competition for the top 12 professors in an American college or university. In 1991 he was chosen Professor of the Year for Alabama by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. In 2014, the Alabama College English Teachers Association awarded him the Eugene Current Garcia Award for outstanding teaching and writing.

During his career he taught more than 6,000 undergraduates, directed 42 master’s theses and 26 doctoral dissertations.

Flynt has been invited to lecture about his favorite novel, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD,and its author, at universities and “Big Read” programs in cities across America and around the world.

In January, 2016, he was inducted, along with Harper Lee, into Alabama’s Black Belt Hall of Fame. He has also been invited to lecture at Cambridge and Oxford universities, the University of Sussex, Queens University (Northern Ireland), University of Hull, University of Vienna, University of Szechuan, China, at the Roosevelt Center in the Netherlands, in Denmark, at a number of universities in India, and on ABC Radio Australia’s nationwide “Book Club”. He was research scholar for a semester at Hong Kong Baptist University and also served a semester as Eudora Welty Visiting Scholar of Southern Studies at Millsap College, Jackson, MS. Flynt is active in a number of professional organizations, six of which have honored him with their highest awards for service.

In 2003-04 he served as president of the Southern Historical Association, the largest professional organization devoted to the study of southern history and culture, with some 5,000 members worldwide. He was founding general editor of the online Encyclopedia of Alabama from which he retired in September 2008.

Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III With civil rights advocacy in his DNA, Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III built his ministry on community advancement and social justice activism.

As Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Ill., Dr. Moss spent the last two decades practicing and preaching a Black theology that unapologetically calls attention to the problems of mass incarceration, environmental justice and economic inequality.

Dr. Moss is part of a new generation of ministers committed to preaching a prophetic message of love and justice, which he believes are inseparable companions that form the foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As part of his community engagement through Trinity United Church of Christ, Dr. Moss led the team that came up with the “My Life Matters” curriculum; which includes the viral video “Get Home Safely: 10 Rules of Survival,” created in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death at the hands of Ferguson, Mo., police.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Moss is an honors graduate of Morehouse College who earned a Master of Divinity form Yale Divinity School, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Chicago Theological Seminary. He returned to Yale in 2014 to present the famed Lyman Beecher lectures. The three-day event included an in-depth discourse on the subject of “The Blue Note Gospel: Preaching the Prophetic Blues in a Post Soul World.” The lectures, which demonstrated a homiletic blueprint for prophetic preaching in the 21st century, were the foundation of his latest book, Blue Note Preaching in a Post-Soul World: Finding Hope in an Age of Despair, published in 2015.

Dr. Moss was named to the inaugural Root 100, a list that “recognizes emerging and established African-American leaders who are making extraordinary contributions,” according to the publication’s Website. Honorees range between ages 25 to 45, and their accomplishments and successes transcend media headlines or statistics.

With a unique gift to communicate across generations, Dr. Moss’ creative bible-based messages have inspired young and old alike. His intergenerational preaching gift has made Dr. Moss a popular speaker on college campuses, at conferences, and churches across the globe. He is highly influenced by the works of Zora Neale Hurston, August Wilson, Howard Thurman, Jazz, and Hip-Hop music. The work and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the pastoral ministry of his father, Dr. Otis Moss, Jr. of Cleveland, Ohio, have been primary mentors for his spiritual formation.

With a unique gift to communicate across generations, Dr. Moss’ creative bible-based messages have inspired young and old alike. His intergenerational preaching gift has made Dr. Moss a popular speaker on college campuses, at conferences, and churches across the globe. He is highly influenced by the works of Zora Neale Hurston, August Wilson, Howard Thurman, Jazz, and Hip-Hop music. The work and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the pastoral ministry of his father, Dr. Otis Moss, Jr. of Cleveland, Ohio, have been primary mentors for his spiritual formation.

He is the former pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga., his first pastorate, where the church grew from 125 members to over 2100 disciples during his tenure.

He is the former pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga., his first pastorate, where the church grew from 125 members to over 2100 disciples during his tenure.

His earlier publications include: Redemption in a Red Light District, and The Gospel According to the Wiz: And Other Sermons from Cinema. He co-authored The Gospel Re-Mix; How to Reach the Hip-Hop Generation with three other contributors, and Preach! The Power and Purpose Behind Our Praise, with his father.

His earlier publications include: Redemption in a Red Light District, and The Gospel According to the Wiz: And Other Sermons from Cinema. He co-authored The Gospel Re-Mix; How to Reach the Hip-Hop Generation with three other contributors, and Preach! The Power and Purpose Behind Our Praise, with his father.

His sermons, articles, and poetry have appeared in publications such as Sojourners Magazine and The African American Pulpit Journal. Those works include: Power in the Pulpit II: America’s Most Effective Preachers, Joy To The World: Sermons From America’s Pulpit, Sound The Trumpet: Messages of Hope for Black Men, and The Audacity of Faith: Christian Leaders Reflect on the Election of Barack Obama. His work has also been featured on HuffingtonPost, Urban Cusp, and The Root.

Dr. Moss is an ordained minister in the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the United Church of Christ. He is on the boards of Auburn Seminary and Faith-In-Place/Action Fund , and chaplain of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Samuel DeWitt Proctor Child Advocacy Conference. Additionally, Dr. Moss is a Senior Fellow in the Auburn Seniors Fellow Program.

He is married to his college sweetheart, the former Monica Brown of Orlando, Fla., a Spelman College and Columbia University graduate. They are the proud parents of two creative and humorous children, Elijah Wynton and Makayla Elon.

Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III With civil rights advocacy in his DNA, Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III built his ministry on community advancement and social justice activism.

As Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Ill., Dr. Moss spent the last two decades practicing and preaching a Black theology that unapologetically calls attention to the problems of mass incarceration, environmental justice and economic inequality.

Dr. Moss is part of a new generation of ministers committed to preaching a prophetic message of love and justice, which he believes are inseparable companions that form the foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As part of his community engagement through Trinity United Church of Christ, Dr. Moss led the team that came up with the “My Life Matters” curriculum; which includes the viral video “Get Home Safely: 10 Rules of Survival,” created in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death at the hands of Ferguson, Mo., police.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Moss is an honors graduate of Morehouse College who earned a Master of Divinity form Yale Divinity School, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Chicago Theological Seminary. He returned to Yale in 2014 to present the famed Lyman Beecher lectures. The three-day event included an in-depth discourse on the subject of “The Blue Note Gospel: Preaching the Prophetic Blues in a Post Soul World.” The lectures, which demonstrated a homiletic blueprint for prophetic preaching in the 21st century, were the foundation of his latest book, Blue Note Preaching in a Post-Soul World: Finding Hope in an Age of Despair, published in 2015.

Dr. Moss was named to the inaugural Root 100, a list that “recognizes emerging and established African-American leaders who are making extraordinary contributions,” according to the publication’s Website. Honorees range between ages 25 to 45, and their accomplishments and successes transcend media headlines or statistics.

His sermons, articles, and poetry have appeared in publications such as Sojourners Magazine and The African American Pulpit Journal. Those works include: Power in the Pulpit II: America’s Most Effective Preachers, Joy To The World: Sermons From America’s Pulpit, Sound The Trumpet: Messages of Hope for Black Men, and The Audacity of Faith: Christian Leaders Reflect on the Election of Barack Obama. His work has also been featured on HuffingtonPost, Urban Cusp, and The Root.

Dr. Moss is an ordained minister in the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the United Church of Christ. He is on the boards of Auburn Seminary and Faith-In-Place/Action Fund , and chaplain of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Samuel DeWitt Proctor Child Advocacy Conference. Additionally, Dr. Moss is a Senior Fellow in the Auburn Seniors Fellow Program.

He is married to his college sweetheart, the former Monica Brown of Orlando, Fla., a Spelman College and Columbia University graduate. They are the proud parents of two creative and humorous children, Elijah Wynton and Makayla Elon.