This year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day activities on January 20 had quite a different approach when compared with previous year’s events. Unlike last year, the program was comprised of a performance of traditional and original blues music by George Kilby Jr., Hill class of 1978, and Phil Wiggins, a traditional blues harmonica player, who arrived on Hill campus to present their program,  “Racism, Reconciliation, and the Blues” to our community. After the performance, students watched Dr. King’s famed, I Have a Dream speech and students were invited to stay in the CFTA in silence before they went on to their afternoon activities. A select group of student leaders also had the opportunity to speak to Kilby after the first half of the event, analyzing Letter from Birmingham Jail.  The conversation after the lecture centered on modern or “systemic” racism.

 During the “Racism, Reconciliation, and the Blues” presentation, Wiggins and Kilby performed blues music following each song with commentary about the music and analyzing the themes and messages conveyed by the music and lyrics. This combination of blues music with the musicians’ personal experience, to illustrate the legacy of race and the impact of racism, aimed to frame the issue of racism in a different context.

“I have ceased to become angry or frustrated with people from the South,” Kilby said.“ I have, like Phil, forgiven their reaction. I think this is the most important thing my involvement with race has given me… What changes things is to learn to forgive, understand when people are reacting in a negative way and engage in some sort of dialogue to create some understanding. These are the things that help eradicate the issue of racism.”

 “I think [this] will deepen our understanding by first, having people to watch the ‘I Have A Dream’ speech and second, having George coming back from class of 1978 to give a perspective on when he was at Hill and what Hill is like now to demonstrate the steps we’ve taken,” said Jeff Hollway, co-adviser for inclusion and diversity. 

“What I want the students to gain from MLK day is high energy, to listen to really great music, really get the day going, come back, and really get a deeper understanding of what the ‘I Have a Dream Speech’ meant, and what the actual words are and be able to take that back to the dormitories and classrooms and teams,” Hollway said. 

Wiggins and Kilby, both extremely experienced musicians, have won many awards in the blues community. Wiggins was one half of the internationally acclaimed “Cephas and Wiggins” for 35 years. He was awarded honors which include the National Heritage Fellowship Award – the highest honor awarded to Blues/Jazz/Folk musicians in the United States. Kilby worked for 20 years with the legendary pianist Pinetop Perkins of Muddy Waters’s band fame. Kilby’s honors include a WC Handy Blues Album Of The Year with Perkins. 

“I think the idea of using music to talk about MLK day is pretty new, and I really enjoyed the quality of the music,” Jerry Liu ’20 said. “I learned something that’s outside the normal conversation about racism.”