Bloomington MLK keynote speaker in letter to enslaved ancestors: “You will not be forgotten.”

Delivering the keynote address for the city of Bloomington’s Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration on Monday was Jesse Hagopian.

The annual event is held at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Kirkwood Avenue in downtown Bloomington.

Hagopian is an ethnic studies teacher at Seattle’s Garfield High School, who is an activist on issues of educational equity, the school-to-prison pipeline, standardized testing, the Black Lives Matter at School movement, and social justice unionism.

For the occasion, Hagopian wore a T-shirt with King’s image and a quote: “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” That was a thread running through his remarks, as he focused on states across the country that have enacted laws that prevent the teaching of an accurate history of slavery in the United States.

Hagopian told the crowd that in Florida, the official state curriculum now declares that slavery was of “personal benefit” to Black people. In Florida, it’s a $5,000 fine, with a five-year jail sentence for educators who get caught with the wrong book about race, gender or sexuality in their classroom, Hagopian said.

One of the slides from Hagopian’s deck, with the title “Teachers Refuse to Lie,” featured three quotes from teachers, including Guadalupe Ramirez, a high school English teacher in Munster, Indiana: “My students are brilliant and powerful. Their history is their birthright. I will not rob them. The future is theirs to shape.”

A highlight of Hagopian’s remarks on Monday was the story of a recent pilgrimage that he made with his father and brother to the Lenoir Plantation in Morgantown, Mississippi. It’s the place where his ancestors were enslaved.

Hagopian described how he knelt on the ground in a graveyard, where one gravestone still remained, and read aloud a letter to his ancestors. The letter included this line: “It doesn’t matter if they pass laws that make it illegal to speak of you, teach about you, or learn about you, because those laws don’t govern us.”

The letter also included a promise: “We are here to make a promise to you, to this land, and to each other: you will not be forgotten.” As part of his remarks on Monday, Hagopian read the letter aloud.

Monday’s program was emceed by Gloria Howell and James Sanders, with the city’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration Commission. It featured performances by the Highland Park Elementary School Choir, the Fairview World Music Program, and the Indiana University African American Choral Ensemble.

Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson presented the Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award to Sarah McCue. Also delivering remarks, on behalf of the Monroe County commissioners, was Penny Githens.

Hagopian was introduced by Rashad Nelms, who is executive in residence in the office of Indiana University’s Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

The program wrapped up with closing remarks from Forrest Gilmore, who is executive director of Beacon, Inc.

Letter read aloud by Jesse Hagopian in Morgantown, Mississippi

Beloved ancestors,

Many obstacles have been placed in the way of us returning to the land where you were enslaved, abused, and forced to work to enrich the white Lenoir enslavers. The pandemic, a stroke, a fear of flying, and long Covid delayed our journey here. Before that, the education system withheld any knowledge of where you came from, the cruelty you endured, or the creativity and beautiful resistance you contributed to the world. The system of white supremacy used many tactics to deceive us and prevent our family from making this pilgrimage to where you were held captive and denied manumission.

Despite the many obstacles and the plots to hide this place from us—and deny us knowledge of this land and your existence here—we have found it! Your family has returned to claim you!

We have returned to the forced enslaved labor camp that was politely referred to as the Lenoir plantation. We have returned to the place where you no doubt spent endless hours picking cotton and tobacco, with the promise of the lash if you slowed down or refused. We have returned to the site of unspeakable horrors.

But we have also returned to the place where you all dared to live. A place where you all had the incredible courage to love—despite knowing that falling in love could inflict a terrible pain when your beloved was sold away or worked to death. We are here! We are at the very place where you found ways to guard your humanity from those who thought it was possible to steal. We are here where you sang together, granted forgiveness to a friend who hurt your feelings, dressed the wounds of those who were injured, and held those in need of comfort.

We are here to experience a truth deeper than any that can be understood intellectually. We are here to make a promise to you, to this land, and to each other: you will not be forgotten.

It doesn’t matter if they pass laws that make it illegal to speak of you, teach about you, or learn about you, because those laws don’t govern us. Only truth and love govern us, and so we will pass on the knowledge of this land and your existence here to our posterity and to all who we encounter.

We send to you our deepest gratitude for gifting us the will to survive and the spirit of resistance that you passed to us through your blood and through your stories.

With eternal love,

Jesse, Jamana, and Gerald

Photos: Bloomington MLK Birthday Celebration (Jan. 15, 2024)