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Old Gold&Black
WAKE FOREST’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1916 VOL. 105, NO. 2
T H U R S DAY, JA N UA RY 24 , 2 019 “Cover s the campus like the magnolias”
wfuogb.com
Winston-Salem residents push for statue removal A downtown statue is in the process of being removed after pushback from local activists BY MARY DANIEL CHEEK Staff Writer cheemd15@wfu.edu
society. Rye argued that this is still taking place today. “For black folks, [token integration] is when we want to become the first but were not worried about the next, when we accept the legacy of the one and only [rather than] the legacy of the first,” Rye said. Instead, she argued, individuals must engage in “meaningful participation” to be able to change society and stand, as the theme suggested, on common ground. Within this idea, Rye discussed the importance of allyship. “Allyship is not saying all lives matter, allyship is not requiring that my obstacle is your challenge and obstacle, allyship is not saying that we shall overcome, but not ever exercising your privilege to make sure this is done, allyship is not whitewashing MLK,” Rye said.
On Tuesday, Jan. 22, a group of Winston-Salem residents and students gathered at the City Council chambers to voice their opinions about the statue of the Confederate soldier that stands in downtown Winston-Salem. Members of the group Hate Out of Winston spoke during the 30-minute public comment period of the City Council meeting. During this period, citizens can personally address City Council members and voice any concerns about the operations of the city government. According to the group’s Facebook page, the goal of the Pack City Council event was to place continued pressure on the city government to remove the statue from downtown following the city’s mandate for the statue’s owner to relocate it. In addition to advocating for the removal of the statue, the group also plans on fighting for local change around issues such as affordable housing, gentrification and education. Senior Alec Jessar belongs to the Hate Out of Winston group and was involved in helping to coordinate the Pack City Council event. While Jessar was unable to attend Tuesday’s city council meeting, he does believe that the removal of the statue is a step in the right direction for Winston-Salem. “To me, the statue represents that racism still very much exists in Winston-Salem and in this country,” said Jessar. Alexx Andersen, a graduate student in the Wake Forest School of Divinity, attended Tuesday’s meeting and was one of the attendees who shared their feelings about the statue with the city council. Andersen was one of many speakers who voiced their support for the removal of the statue from the downtown location, yet expressed the belief that Winston-Salem’s racial divisions will not fully heal with its removal. Winston-Salem resident Megan Anderson, who also spoke before the council, agreed.
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See Statue, Page 5
Photo courtesy of Winston-Salem Journal
CNN political commentator Angela Rye addressed the communities of Wake Forest and WinstonSalem State during her keynote address on the theme “On Common Ground: Embracing Our Voices.”
Angela Rye honors MLK’s legacy Rye discussed the importance of students meaningfully participating in national and local movements BY OLIVIA FIELD News Editor fielor17@wfu.edu
With the theme “On Common Ground: Embracing Our Voices” at the foundation of the event, the Wake Forest and Winston-Salem State (WSSU) communities joined together on Jan. 21 to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Alongside student speakers and performers, CNN political commentator and keynote speaker Angela Rye addressed the crowd on the everlasting importance of the holiday. Immediately eliciting laughter and applause throughout the crowd, Rye took the stage and asked audience members to sing “Happy Birthday”
as well as tell their neighbor they were “the real M.V.P.” Although she began her speech with an abundance of humor, Rye quickly dove into discussing King’s legacy and present-day importance. “We see pictures of sit-ins, and we see the ‘what’ but we often miss the ‘why.’ Dr. King worked diligently to draw our attention to the ‘why’,” Rye said. By tying in the role that students played in bringing criminal reform and the Black Lives Matter movement to the national stage, she noted that King always knew that “young people are catalysts of change.” Much of the rest of Rye’s speech was tasked with breaking down the difference between “token integration” and “meaningful participation.” In King’s book Why We Can’t Wait, he describes “token integration” as the minimal and inadequate acceptance of black individuals into