MU | F e a t u r e s
King was “eloquent and inspiring” when
he spoke that day, adds Switzer. “You could
hear a pin drop.”
Switzer, who served as Manchester’s
president from 2004 to 2014, says she was
aware that some people on campus and
many in the community were not pleased
Beverly Sayers ’69 Eikenberry was there,
too. She remembers less about the day than
the influence King had on her life. She
studied the nonviolent teachings of King
and Gandhi, served in the Peace Corps
and, for more than 20 years, has served
as a mediator for Education for Conflict
Resolution (ECR) in North Manchester.
“He was a people’s person and it showed. He was a
good person and that showed.”
– Sue Wells ’70 Livers
about King’s visit to Manchester. “In 1968,
some people in small towns in northern
Indiana did not know African-American
people as well as we do now,” adds Switzer.
“Students at Manchester have never been
of one mind, so while there were many
very positive about his work, others were
skeptical. Some were skeptical about his
visit, but it was not a large number.” Retired as ECR’s director, Eikenberry
for years helped create peace education
programming for fourth- and fifth-graders
that included King as a role model.
Joel Eikenberry ’68, a senior that year,
was not skeptical. Eikenberry was a
conscientious objector to the war in
Vietnam and King had started speaking
out against the war. By the late ’60s, King
was converging both great movements
of the time – antiwar and civil rights, says
Eikenberry, and “I was energized by the
combination.” One day. Just a few hours, really. But
Feb. 1, 1968, changed Manchester and
the people who were here.
Eikenberry, a longtime family physician in
North Manchester, remembers Feb. 1 was
dreary and rainy. There were a number of
journalists and some demonstrators, mostly
protesting King’s anti-war stance. The old
auditorium where King spoke was standing
room only.
King influenced her parenting too, says
Eikenberry, who raised her three sons to
resolve their conflicts “through respectful
dialogue.”
“The emotional impact of being there, of
hearing Dr. King, of being challenged to
follow the path toward peace and justice
was significant in many aspects of my social
and moral choices over time,” says Joel
Eikenberry. “It remains in my being to this
day.”
By Melinda Lantz ’81
VIDEO
See the video at magazine.manchester.edu
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