Box 3

Multicultural Center organizes unity march

By Sarah Boswell

The streets looked empty Monday afternoon, except for about 20 minutes during which students and Muncie citizens participated in a unity march down McKinley Avenue.

Multicultural Center director Patricia Lovett said 101 people took part in the march, which was a huge improvement from the nearly 20 people who were at the march last year in downtown Muncie. “Attendance was low, so we took it to Ball State,” she said. Lovett said the march started after people got back from doing projects through Student Voluntary Services.

Tiffany Washington, assistant director of Student Life, said it was a great kickoff for Unity Week. “The concert Thursday was the real kickoff, but this was a good way to kick off the actual week and the numbers were high,” she said.

Participants marched from the Multicultural Center to the Scramble Light and back, singing “Happy Birthday” for Martin Luther King, Jr., “We Shall Overcome” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” considered the Black National Anthem.

The Union Missionary Baptist Church hosted a memorial service at 6 p.m. to conclude the day’s events, which was run by the Coalition of Collective Concerned Clergy.

Graduate student Brett Watson, who works in the Office of Student Life, said he was impressed with the turnout. “You saw everyone — African-American students, Caucasians and Latinos — coming out and it was a great feeling to unite the campus,” he said.


Some obvious representations of culture can be seen in this article. The sense of unity and community expressed by this group in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day gives us insight into the values of some Muncie citizens. Civil Rights has always been a big issue in United States culture and continues to be as represented by this march. The article mentions that there was a mix of races, but no exact ratios. An ethnographer would probably be interested in answering the following questions:
- What race was in the majority in the march? Which was in the minority?
- Were those in attendance actively involved in other ethnic based groups?
- What was the general appearance of the group (i.e. clothing)?
- Have any of the members experienced racial inequalities personally?
- What were the backgrounds of the members.
- What do the members think about the current state of civil equality?
- How involved are some of the members involved with the Civil Rights movement?
- How did members view each other?
- Were races social with each other?
Fieldworkers would want to interview as many of the members of the march as possible. He would be much more interested in what marchers thought than the number in attendance. A fieldworker would ask why they were there, what their social background is and what they thought of the civil rights movement in general. By trying to find out more about the people in the unity march, a fieldworker would gather information about the implications of race and civil rights. Other sources the fieldworker might use are other groups involved in civil rights or even just a spectator of the march to get an outsider perspective.