By Regina Stracqualursi ’15
Members of the Siena College and Capital Region communities gathered last Thursday evening for the 28th annual Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King Lecture on Race and Nonviolent Social Change. This year’s featured speaker was education revolutionary, author and children’s advocate Geoffrey Canada.
Canada, the president of the Harlem Children’s Zone, delivered a speech titled “The Crisis Facing Youth: What Adults and Communities Can Do to Save Our Children.” It focused on the problems that youth face in America today and what communities need to do to combat those issues and create a brighter future.
“His topic reflects his conviction that providing quality education for inner-city youth is the most urgent civil rights issue facing our generation,” said Paul T. Murray, Ph.D., chair of the lecture series advisory board and professor of sociology.
Born and raised in the South Bronx, Canada has spent his life working towards educational reform in New York City. Through his innovative leadership, the Harlem Children’s Zone has developed programs to address the needs of people living in Central Harlem. It operates elementary, middle and high schools, community centers and programs for college preparation and early childhood development.
“I believe that if you love your city, love your state, love your community, you have to get involved with it,” said Canada.
Canada talked candidly to the audience about some of the problems that at-risk, impoverished children face and how every individual plays an important role in social reform.
“The biggest piece of advice I took from Geoffrey Canada is to always have a radical mindset,” said psychology major Gabriella Giarrusso ’18. “It is important to remember that we can always be doing something more.”
Canada encouraged students to be prepared to stand up for social justice and emphasized that everyone in the audience will encounter a time where they have the opportunity to make a difference.
“I believe everyone has a moment in life,” said Canada. “You don’t know when the moment is, but the question is: are you going to prepared to seize that moment?”
Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Peter Ellard, Ph.D. said he hoped students in the audience would walk away feeling inspired.
“That they will want to be a part of the solution that helps to turn lives around, that makes the world more peaceable, just and humane,” Ellard said.
Siena College launched the Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King Lecture Series on Race and Nonviolent Social Change in 1988. Through some of the nation’s most prominent advocates for civil and human rights, each lecture has highlighted how social justice issues such as racism, sexism, classism, militarism and prejudice can be confronted with nonviolent action.
