James Farmer Multicultural Center Assistant Director Chris Williams was featured in a WJLA story about how he and the staff and students involved with the JFMC carry on the legacy of Dr. James L. Farmer Jr. Watch here.
Alumnus Holds Court as Black History Month Keynote Speaker
Judge Kerwin A. Miller Sr., who graduated from Mary Washington in 1995, delivered the virtual keynote address on Wednesday for the James Farmer Multicultural Center’s Black History Month celebration.
As a young teenager growing up in the Bronx, Miller came across an article about how unlikely it was for an African American male to graduate high school. Taking that news story as both an insult and a challenge, he vowed he’d have a different outcome. At Mary Washington, he excelled both in the classroom as a business administration major and on the court as a member of the Eagles basketball team.
A few years later, Miller found himself in a different kind of court after earning a juris doctorate from Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles. He became an attorney with the Legal Aid Bureau in Baltimore, and worked his way through the legal system, serving as a public defender, assistant state’s attorney and eventually an administrative law judge. In 2019, he was sworn in by Governor Larry Hogan as the second African American judge in the history of Harford County, Maryland. Read more.
Williams Featured in Free Lance-Star, Washington Post
James Farmer Multicultural Center Assistant Director Chris Williams was interviewed in The Free Lance-Star about his appearance on PBS’s “American Portrait” on Tuesday, Jan. 26 at 9 p.m.; the article was also reprinted in The Washington Post. Williams was chosen from 11,000 people who submitted a response to the episode’s prompt, “What is the tradition you carry on?” Williams discussed how he continues Dr. Farmer’s legacy through his work with the James Farmer Multicultural Center.
The legacy of James Farmer—who founded the Committee on Racial Equality, led the first Freedom Rides and taught at UMW from 1984 to 1998—is also personal for Williams. He is a product of the James Farmer Scholars Program, which was created in 1987 to assist selected public school students in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Caroline and Westmoreland counties with preparing for and enrolling in higher education. Read more.
Pastor, King Scholar Delivers MLK Keynote
Aaron Dobynes was 5 when word from a Memphis motel made it to his grandfather’s farm in Alabama. A family friend stopped by to relay the news of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, and as the young Dobynes looked on, the two men began to cry.
“I don’t know exactly how I was processing it, but it never left me,” he said.
Now a King scholar with double doctoral degrees, Dobynes delivered UMW’s Martin Luther King Jr. keynote address, presented by the James Farmer Multicultural Center, on Tuesday live via Zoom. A fourth-generation preacher who presides over Fredericksburg’s Shiloh (Old Site) Baptist Church, he wove his own personal civil rights story with words from the famous King speeches he’s studied for decades.
“King was shot and killed, but his spirit lay in all of us. We are the bearers of his dream,” Dobynes said. “We have to regularly and consistently, especially in this age in which we find ourselves, recognize what King said 40-some years ago. The work is never completed.” Read more.
Rev. Aaron Dobynes to Deliver UMW’s Martin Luther King Jr. Keynote Speech
The 10th pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church (Old Site), Dobynes will deliver the Martin Luther King Jr. keynote speech via Zoom on Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 6 p.m. A fourth-generation preacher who holds two doctoral degrees, Dobynes attended high school in Selma, Alabama, and will draw on his personal experiences and advanced studies to deliver an emotional presentation dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. Presented by the James Farmer Multicultural Center. Registration is required.
Women’s History Month Program Proposals Needed
This year’s theme is “Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to be Silenced.”
Visit students.umw.edu/multicultural/programs/womens-history-month/ or contact JoAnna Raucci (jraucci@umw.edu) for more information. Please submit your program proposals by Monday, December 7 at 5 p.m.