Organizing a Social Justice Event (3 pts)

 

As a fellow in the Quarterman Keller Fellowship within the Social Justice Program, I, along with my cohort, have the honor of curating events tailored to social justice advocacy. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we focused on respectability politics in the Civil Rights Movement and honoring Claudette Colvin. One of the biggest strengths of the event was how it challenged people to rethink the way we remember the Civil Rights Movement. By centering Claudette Colvin, we were able to push beyond the more familiar narratives and have honest conversations about how respectability politics shaped who was uplifted and who was overlooked. The discussion created space for people to engage critically while still connecting the topic to present-day issues. One area that could have been improved was creating more time for small-group dialogue. The topic sparked a lot of interest, and giving participants more space to process and share their thoughts in smaller settings could have made the conversation even more impactful.

This experience connected closely to what I’ve been learning through the Social Justice Program and in my academic work. I’ve noticed a pattern across many of these experiences: history is often simplified in ways that make movements more comfortable, but that can erase the contributions of people who didn’t fit a certain image. Respectability politics continues to shape not just how we understand the past, but how activism is received today. Organizing this event reinforced how important it is to question dominant narratives and create space for more honest and inclusive conversations about justice.

The impact of this experience was both personal and professional. It strengthened my confidence in leading conversations around complex and sometimes uncomfortable topics, and it reaffirmed my commitment to advocacy that centers truth and inclusion. It also pushed me to think more intentionally about how I design programs—not just to inform, but to challenge and engage people in meaningful ways. Moving forward, I want to continue creating spaces like this, improve how I facilitate dialogue, and keep building programming that uplifts overlooked voices and encourages deeper understanding of social justice issues.

Tyler Dorsey