Meditations on Democracy
Each year the Wooster campus community takes time to engage in meaningful exploration and dialogue about issues that connect with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s work and vision on matters relating to civil rights and social justice, activism, responsibility, and engagement.
2025 Schedule of Events
| Date | Time | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday, Jan. 20 | 9:00 am | Interfaith Prayer Breakfast and Keynote Address by Dr. Randal Maurice Jelks | Kittredge Dining Hall |
| 7:00 pm | Wooster Gospel Choir performance with the Wooster Jazz Ensemble | First Presbyterian Church | |
| Tuesday, Jan. 21 | 11:00 am | Justice Dialogue: The Power of Pedagogy: Reforming U.S. Public Education with Black Feminist Theory by Brianna Becerra '25 | The Alley, Lowry Center |
| 12:00 pm | Justice Dialogue: The Role of Education in Fostering Democracy, moderated by Pam Frese | The Alley, Lowry Center | |
| Wednesday, Jan. 22 | 11:00 am-1:00 pm | Special Edition of Soup and Bread *Proceeds supporting lunch debt relief for Wooster City Schools | Kittredge Dining Hall |
| Thursday, Jan. 23 | 11:00 am | Justice Dialogue: Art is Dangerous: Artists on Injustice and Inequality by Marianne Wardle | The College of Wooster Art Museum |
| 11:00 am | Justice Dialogue: Talk Back with the filmmakers of "Borderland: The Line Within," hosted by Amyaz Moledina | The Alley, Lowry Center |
Keynote Speaker
Randal Maurice Jelks
Randal Maurice Jelks is the Ruth N. Halls Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University. He is an award-winning author and a documentary film producer. He is the author of African Americans in the Furniture City: The Struggle for Civil Rights Struggle in Grand Rapids, Benjamin Elijah Mays, Schoolmaster of the Movement: A Biography, Faith and Struggle in the Lives of Four African Americans: Ethel Waters, Mary Lou Williams, Eldridge Cleaver and Muhammad Ali and Letters to Martin: Meditations on Democracy in Black America and a contributor to an edited collection of essays titled 42 Today: Jack Robinson and His Legacy. His other writings have appeared in his online sub stack Notes from the Black Bottom, the Boston Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Truthout as well as national blogs, journals, magazines and newspapers. He is currently writing book My America: Langston Hughes on Democracy (Broadleaf Books).