Augusta Technical College (ATC), Paine College and Augusta University (AU) banded together to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Friday afternoon.
The annual tri-college event started at noon, hosted by ATC this year, with a crowd gathering in the Jack B. Patrick Information Technology Center auditorium comprised of students, local officials, school staff and administrators and other visitors.
The program followed a liturgical structure, complete with the Paine College choir performing selections throughout the event, such as “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the African American spiritual “I Open My Mouth to the Lord,” and leading the audience in singing along with James Weldon Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “We Shall Overcome.”
Augusta Tech President Jermaine Whirl presided over the proceedings, with AU President Brooks Keel bringing the Call to Order.
Paine College President Cheryl Evans Jones led a special commemorative litany honoring Dr. King, titled “Let My People Go,” invoking the divine while exhorting the audience to pray for justice and freedom.
“In the grand order of the universe, our Lord God wisely has chosen men and women to serve Him in each era,” read Jones, beginning the call-and-response litany. “Such a servant of our Lord God was Martin Luther King Jr., whose birth we now commemorate.”
Jasmine Sims, chief of staff of the Office of Mayor Garnett Johnson, offered greetings on behalf of the mayor. Ralph Turner, president of Wellstar/MCG, also presented remarks.
Turner noted that he shares a birthday with Dr. King, Jan. 15, and was born in year of his death, 1968, and recalled the reverence Turner’s grandmother had for the civil rights leader.
“I greet you today in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, the spirit that embraces humanity, operational stability and extends mutual respect,” said Turner. “It is my hope that today’s celebration will serve to keep the spirit and the dream of Dr. King alive in our community, institutions, and each of you because his work is still not done.”
The program’s keynote speaker was Otis S. Johnson, Ph.D., who served as Savannah’s 64th mayor from 2003 to 2011. Johnson’s decades-long career spans public service and academia, serving on Savannah’s city council, the Savannah Chatham Board of Education, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Savannah State University, and various other leadership positions in community organizations. He is currently the chair of the Savannah Racial Equity and Leadership Task Force.
Whirl noted that both he and Johnson are alumni of Armstrong State University, which merged with Georgia Southern University in 2017.
The underlying theme in Johnson’s address was King’s overarching, faith-based mission toward promoting a “beloved community.” Johnson surveyed the life of Dr. King, including his studies at Crozier Theological Seminary, earning his doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University, his being mentored by theologian and civil rights activist Howard Thurman, and his meeting with Mahatma Gandhi, the study of whom helped King develop a strategy of non-violent resistance that proved integral and pervasive in the Civil Rights Movement.
“It is poverty, racism and militarism that is still keeping us from developing the beloved community,” Johnson said. “And until we confront and conquer those ills, we will continue to have people… who are being held back in terms of equal opportunities and the other kinds of things that are tearing this world apart.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
