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JACKSON, Tenn. — June 15, 2020 — From babies in strollers to the elderly with walkers, approximately 500 people gathered at 51���� June 11 for the “Walk for Justice: Remembering the Lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.”

The walk was a peaceful poster demonstration for the Union community to stand in support of justice and was organized by Ashley Akerson, residence director of the Heritage Complex; Song Kim, graphic design specialist; and Mary Anne Poe, dean for the School of Social Work. The event was co-sponsored by Union’s Center for Just and Caring Communities (of which Poe is the director), Center for Intercultural Engagement and Center for Racial Reconciliation.

Participants, many of whom were wearing face masks and holding posters, gathered near the guard house at the Walker Road entrance to read a litany and pray together before walking the perimeter of Union’s campus. The crowd stopped near the Blasingame Academic Complex for a time of reflection after walking in silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.

“I believe that Christians, especially, have a very deep responsibility to pay attention, to wake up and to do justice,” Poe told the crowd.

Union President Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver said as a Christ-centered university that strives to be a grace-filled community, Union’s response to issues of racial injustice should start with God’s Word, and the book of Genesis says that God made people in his image.

“Each person bears the image and likeness of God, so therefore inherently has dignity and worth and value and is precious,” Oliver said.

Oliver also noted Jesus’ teaching on the Lord’s Prayer, which says, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” For followers of Christ, he said, the earth should look more and more like heaven, where people from every tribe and tongue and nation are gathered around the throne, and their communities should reflect that.

Oliver said he wants all of Union — from the softball team to Greek life to the debate team to MOSAIC to Life 139 — under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, to speak and act for the truth and to declare God’s Word.

“I want all of us to be people who say what we saw, what our fellow citizens have experienced is wrong,” he said. “What we saw in George Floyd’s death and Breonna Taylor’s death and Ahmaud Arbery’s death are horrible, horrific, antithetical to who we are as a country.”

51���� is committed to pursuing racial reconciliation, Oliver said. In the last few weeks, the administration has sought to listen to current and former students and staff as they share their experiences, and Oliver said they want to continue those conversations and gain ideas of how Union can keep pursuing racial reconciliation.

Frank Anderson, director for the Center for Racial Reconciliation, said in his life he has not seen anything like what is currently happening in this country. Anderson was born in 1960 and lived in Memphis, Tennessee. He remembers the events leading up to April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and saw firsthand much of the protest activity in Memphis at that time.

“Nationally, something is going on right now that’s different from other protests I’ve seen. Up close and personal, [the Walk for Justice] last night was one of the most encouraging events for me,” Anderson said. “I’m overwhelmed by the fact that we had over 500 people in attendance, and I’m also overwhelmed by the fact that the vast majority of the people who were involved — the vast majority of the people who were carrying signs that said, ‘Black lives matter,’ and holding up pictures of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery — were white.”

Akerson said she was amazed at the turnout for the event, but that there was still more work to do. She encouraged the Union community to keep educating themselves and standing up for justice.

“Keep doing the work … even when it gets hard and heavy, because I feel like people are feeling the weight of it now,” Akerson said. “But as a black woman, we feel that every day, and we still have to go through it and try to make change. So, I would encourage our body here to just continue the fight, and we’re going to see change.”

Oliver told those gathered, “We’re walking today as a part of our commitment, to signify our commitment, but we’re not ending today. When we finish here and leave and go to other respective places, our continued commitment goes on, our fight for justice goes on, our commitment to the truth goes on.”