Library director reflects on hosting MLK Day celebration for 20 years

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — For the past two decades, the Tippecanoe County Public Library has held the honor of hosting an annual event celebrating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., and this year, the library took a moment to reflect on its achievement.

For many communities across the country, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is meant to be a day of reflection on King’s activism for the Civil Rights Movement and how his actions affect us to this day.

Jos Holman, the director of the Tippecanoe County Public Library, remembered wanting to uphold that ideology when the library held its first event directed by him back in 2004.

“For me, the day is an opportunity for people to reflect and to be reflective on their lives,” Holman said.

“Each year, we tried to find what I call, a 'touchstone' for people. For them to say, ‘Today we are celebrating Dr. King, and this is how I was involved, engaged, or touched in some way by this’, because we should be celebrating his life and his impact on our society.”

To give people an opportunity to obtain that “touchstone” moment, Holman created an event where he invites local people to share their stories about how King inspired them in their lifetime.

“We invite keynote speakers who people could be either inspired by or even be challenged by. The purpose was for people to reflect,” he said.

“It wasn’t always about history either. It was also about highlighting people who either needed to be introduced to the community because they had a position here or had some history in this area.

“That’s why we tried to highlight and share the stories of local individuals, who are and have contributed to the community.”

Over the years, Holman has invited several people with a variety of backgrounds and races to be the keynote speaker of the library’s event. He remembers how one year; he invited a man who spoke about King’s protest of the Vietnam War and how King’s action had deeply affected him.

The idea of inviting a variety of people to speak was to showcase how King’s actions and activism touched people’s souls in a unique and personal manner.

For example, this year’s keynote speaker is Cornelius L. Bynum, an associate history professor and the director of the African American Studies and Research Center at Purdue University.

Holman highlighted how Bynum has a unique way of both educating and speaking to a person’s soul within the span of 20 minutes. Holman was so impressed by Bynum's ability to speak to people, that Bynum is one of the few people who’s a returning speaker at this event.

Reflecting on the event's first small gathering in a library meeting room 20 years ago, Holman said he never imagined this event could have ballooned into this large annual community celebration.

In the first few years of the program, it only attracted a few dozen people to the library, he said. But over the years as it gained more traction within the community it grew to a point where it outgrew the library.

To ensure that as many people could make it to the event, Holman remembered making the active decision to limit the event to a one-hour period in the meeting of the day, primarily hoping that people could attend during their lunch break.

“We’ve had several times where there was only standing room only for our event,” Holman said. “The library meeting room could hold up to 144 people seated, so imagine how many can fit in there if we all stand.”

But beyond the growth of the event, one aspect that Holman reflected on, was not only the lack of a community event for Martin Luther King Jr. Day but also the lack of a larger celebration to celebrate the holiday.

Before he was appointed county librarian, the library held an incredibly small event for children.

“They used to have people from the Purdue Black Cultural Center come over to (the library) and interact with the kids in the youth room,” Holman said.

“That was their MLK activity and celebration," Holman said. "I was like, if we’re going to celebrate Dr. King, we should have a public gathering of folks and have specific elements to our program.”

And even after starting his event, the library’s celebration was the only one community event held in Dr. Kings honor specifically on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

A few years after the library started its event that the Purdue University students started hosting their day of service event and the art museum began hosting an event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. However, ever since the Covid-19 pandemic, the art museum has not hosted an event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

After hosting Martin Luther King Jr. Day for two decades — excluding the one year, they missed because of COVID-19 — Holman is proud of the library's event and hopes that it continues to grow and engage the community.

Beyond his joy towards the library’s event longevity, Holman hopes that there might be a desire within the community to expand and host more events to honor Martin Luther King Jr.

“There are major celebrations all across the country, and the weather is different in different parts of the country. And you know, the fact is, does the community hold this activity to some standard or honor for celebration and recognition,” Holman asked.

“Does the community want to recognize it? And for me, I say, 'Yes.' Or else we wouldn’t have a standing-room crowd at all in that room.”

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: For the last two decades, Tippecanoe library host MLK Day celebration