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Chapel Service Honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Jan. 16, Westminster School’s Multicultural Student Union — co-headed by Anissa Joseph ’17, Joel Groves’17 and Gary Simons ’17— planned a chapel service that included readings, music and a guest speaker. With support from the John Hay Society, an offertory was organized as a donation for the Connecticut Fair Housing Center in Hartford, a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to ensuring all people have equal housing in Connecticut.
Morgan Peirce ’17, Kyani Jemmotte ’20 and Shaunna Walsh ’20 shared readings, Chorale gave a powerful performance of U2’s “MLK” and Alexa Green ’17 sang a heartfelt solo of “His Eye is on the Sparrow.”
Morgan Peirce ’17, Kyani Jemmotte ’20 and Shaunna Walsh ’20 shared readings, Chorale gave a powerful performance of U2’s “MLK” and Alexa Green ’17 sang a heartfelt solo of “His Eye is on the Sparrow.”
Guest speaker Martha Brackeen-Harris — grandmother of Alexa Green ’17 and who also served as an affinity group leader for Westminster’s Diversity Day last year — talked about her family’s friendship with Dr. King and her personal call to action. She explained how people use the MLK holiday to serve others.
She invited everyone to consider the following question and her hopes for the audience: “What have you done to fight for equity and justice when it wasn’t comfortable or convenient?” She continued, “(My hope is that) you will meet someone in your life who will, with just a handshake, ignite something in you so that whatever career you choose, you will find a way to light the path of others who are walking in darkness, so that you can share in being a part of Dr. King’s legacy.”
Brackeen-Harris is a retired public and independent school educator who served for more than 40 years in Philadelphia and Hartford area schools. She was as a multicultural advisor at Miss Porter’s School, the head of the middle school at Watkinson School and head of community outreach at Renbrook School. One of the co-founders of SPHERE, the greater Hartford consortium of which Westminster is a member, Brackeen-Harris has conducted many diversity workshops both locally and nationally and has spoken to a variety of audiences about her life growing up in the civil rights era.
To watch the video of the service, please click here.
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