Seminary鈥檚 MLK Jr. Day event to focus on African American stories of Elkhart鈥檚 Benham West neighborhood
Published: January 5, 2022
ELKHART, Indiana 鈥� A forthcoming documentary and book 鈥� What Happened at Benham West: African American Stories of Community, Displacement and Hopes in the City of Elkhart 鈥� will be the focus of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary鈥檚 2022 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day program. The public is invited to attend the online event, which will be livestreamed on Monday, Jan. 17, 2022, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time at .
The event follows up on bg真人鈥檚 2020 MLK Day program, Repairing the Harm: A Community Conversation on the Systemic Exclusion of African Americans in Elkhart, which featured a panel discussion on the exclusion of African Americans in the community of Elkhart, Indiana, where the seminary is located. Conversations during and after that event among the panelists (local African American leaders Rev. Jean Mayes and Rev. Dr. Plez Lovelady) and participants emphasized the need to name and address both current and past harms.
In response to this need and with the passionate encouragement of elders and allies both within Elkhart and beyond, two bg真人 faculty members led a team to produce the aforementioned documentary and book, which will be released in spring 2022 by Wolfson Press. Together, the pieces explore life in the predominantly Black Benham West neighborhood 鈥� known to many as 鈥渢he village鈥濃�� including experiences of segregation in Elkhart, the city鈥檚 clearing of Benham West, and some of the remaining elders鈥� hopes for the future.
The faculty members who led the project, Nekeisha Alayna Alexis, MA, Intercultural Competence and Undoing Racism coordinator; and Jamie Pitts, PhD, Associate Professor of Anabaptist Studies and Director of the Institute of Mennonite Studies; will serve as presenters for this year鈥檚 MLK Day program. The event will feature video clips from the documentary, and Pitts will share about Black history in Elkhart. Alexis will also provide background on the project, while members of the Elkhart Black History Project Advisory Committee will take part in a panel discussion to reflect on their participation in the project.
Funding for the documentary and book project came from the and .
To learn more, see ambs.edu/mlkday or email icurassistant@ambs.edu.
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