About the Service:
In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, people all over the country began protesting for days and weeks on end. Unable to sit at home watching the unrest unfold any longer, our speaker this week decided to take action. She sat with a simple message—Stop Racism Now—in the most visible and busiest spot in the center of one of the most conservative universities in the state of Alabama. She returned to the same spot with the same message every day that summer. By the time school started again that fall, a rotating crew of regulars was sitting and chatting with her, welcoming new students to campus from their daily post. This daily protest continued even after she moved to Texas for a new job. The “Corner Crew” just celebrated five years of this social experiment this past summer. The daily protest has become a regular feature of this small college town, with several news articles written about it and art inspired by the characters that have kept it going over the years.
About Our Speaker:
Kelli R. Thompson is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Texas A&M–Kingsville. She was born and raised on the wrong side of the tracks (quite literally) in Montgomery, Alabama—a city that is no stranger to civil rights history. As a youth, she was drawn to this history and began learning the tricks of the trade of social organizing through programs such as Youth in Government, the Civitan Group, Girls State, and basically any and all service organizations that existed to give poor kids like herself a shot at doing some good trouble. She attended her first protest in Los Angeles, California, in 2006 against the Iraq War. Since then, she has attended some of the biggest marches in Washington, D.C., including the Women’s March in 2017 and the anniversary of Dr. King’s Million Man March in 2020. Today, she will share about a social experiment she started several years ago during the summer of George Floyd.
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Topics: 1st Principle - Everyone is important, 5th Principle - All people have a vote, 6th Principle - We work for a peaceful world, 8th Principle - We work together for diversity and act against racism and oppression, Awareness, Government, Human Rights, Justice, Non-Violence