James Farmer Multicultural Center Assistant Director Christopher Williams
James Farmer Multicultural Center Assistant Director Chris Williams was interviewed for an editorial in The Free Lance-Star entitled, “Carrying Martin Luther King’s fight forward.”
National holidays celebrating great people can be a two-edged sword.
On one side, it is right and proper that these individuals are emblazoned in our national consciousness. They serve as the markers for how we understand our past, and what we want the trajectory of our future to be.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who we recognize Monday, was such a leader. His life is a reminder of the horrendous wrongs perpetuated on Blacks via segregation and slavery. He was also a model for what it means to speak truth to power, insisting that the words “We the People” must include all the people.
Chris Williams, the assistant director of the James Farmer Multicultural Center at UMW, sees where the Fredericksburg region is taking positive steps in this direction.
He is among a vanguard of leaders working, he says, to ensure that the “uncovered Black history of this area gets told in a very meaningful, introspective, respectful way.” Central to this effort is a new Civil Rights Trail that Williams hopes will open this year. It’s a sign, he says, that “shows we’re heading in the right direction.” Read more.