Mount Holyoke News AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1917 FRIDAY, September 17, 2021
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Kijua Sanders-McMurtry joins Lowery Institute as a board member; brings new opportunities to Mount Holyoke students nity to bring Agnes Scott students together with students from the Atlanta University Center Consortium, which consists of the historically Black institutions of Spelman College, Morehouse When Kijua Sanders-Murtry, College and Clark-Atlanta University. Mount Holyoke’s Vice President for Eq- The day after students convened, they uity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity held a rally. Officer, was invited to join the board “We all got together and Reverend of directors for The Joseph & Evelyn Lowery — at that time he was in his 80s Lowery Institute for Justice & Human and he just wanted to sit with the stuRights in Atlanta, GA, their first in- dents — he was able to talk to the stustinct was to decline the opportunity. dents,” Sanders-McMurtry said. “[He They were afraid that this new position was] just saying ‘Don’t lose hope. You would interfere with their ability to con- know like we actually have to continue nect students with opportunities at the to fight racism, but take care of yourInstitute. selves too.’ It was really beautiful.” Prior to arriving in Western MasAfter moving to the Pioneer Valley sachusetts to to take on their work at Mount new role at the Holyoke, Sanders- “Black people have always re- College, SandersMurtry worked continsisted white supremacy, always McMurtry for Agnes Scott ued working with College, a his- resisted our own oppression, the Lowery Institorically women’s our involuntary labor and en- tute. They made it college in Decagoal to connect slavement here in the country. aMount tur, GA, less than Holyoke ten miles away There’s always been forms of students with the from the Lowery resistance. The Lowery Insti- many resources Institute. Their that the Institute tute is another, you know, or- had to offer. proximity to the o r g a n i z a t i o n ’s ganization focused on resisting “We just had headquarters and racism, white supremacy, injus- a [Mount Holypersonal connecstudent who tice — racial injustice in par- oke] tions to the Lowwas selected as ticular.” ery family led one of the [Lowthem to become a ery Institute’s] regular volunteer. Scholar-Activists - Kijua Sanders-McMurtry “The very and it comes with first event I ever a stipend, and so did with them was after Trayvon Mar- she was able to get that. She’s going tin’s murderer was released,” Sanders- to be able to work with other students McMurtry recalled. “We got together who want to organize around fighting with Reverend [Joseph] Lowery. He voter suppression,” Sanders-McMurtry asked us to bring college students to- explained. “She was selected and is getgether. We all met and he just sat with ting a stipend to work remotely with the students and we had sort of an inter- other students. It’s like a team of six of generational conversation about how to them and they work collectively in the develop an action plan to resist racism year but they get paid because it’s a together.” grant-funded position,” they said. Sanders-McMurtry remembered Furthermore, Sanders-McMurtry using this conversation as an opportu- has been able to leverage their standing MARIAM KEITA ’24 MANAGING EDITOR OF WEB & NEWS EDITOR
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Photo courtesy of Cheryl Lowery Kristian Contreras, Joseph Lowery and Sanders-McMurtry, working on racial justice at elementary school.
with the Lowery Institute to bring new voices into the Mount Holyoke community. “Last year, with MHC Votes!, one of the student organizations was working on a lot of voter suppression stuff. We were able to connect with Stacey Abrams and with Keisha Lance Bottoms and other people due to that Lowery Institute connection,” Sanders-McMurtry added. Sanders-McMurtry, who identifies as queer, has also worked to further the Lowery Institute’s work regarding the LGBTQ+ community. “I think that there’s work that needs to be done, for sure. I think there’s a lot more radical work around LGBTQ inclusion that the organization needs to do and they know that I’m very outspoken about that work,” Sanders-McMurtry said. “Black people have always resisted white supremacy, always resisted our own oppression, our involuntary labor and enslavement here in [this] coun-
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try. There’s always been forms of resistance,” Sanders-McMurtry said. “The Lowery Institute is another, you know, organization focused on resisting racism, white supremacy, injustice — racial injustice in particular.” For now, Sanders-McMurtry hopes to continue strengthening the relationship between the Lowery Institute and Mount Holyoke in her new role as a board member. One of their long-term goals is to plan a civil rights tour for students that would have them visit different historical landmarks in the southern United States. “I would really want … to think about the ways that we tell stories of freedom movements. So, taking students to those actual places, you know histories and legacies related to civil rights and human rights, justice — particularly in the South — is a part of what we’re going to do next together,” Sanders-McMurtry said. “I’m super excited about that.”
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