Inauguration concerns loom over MLK day events

In a year that has seen the shooting and killing of black men by police officers, and a presidential campaign that for some stirred up racial animus, community members who on Monday morning marched down Indiana Avenue said Martin Luther King Jr. Day has an added urgency this year.

Speaking to a group of about 150 people, U.S. Rep. Andre Carson decried President-elect Donald Trump's feud with civil rights leader John Lewis.

"Donald Trump does not represent the dream of Dr. King," Carson said to applause. In the same room at the Indianapolis Urban League, Mayor Joe Hogsett told the group: "2016 was a very challenging year."

Commemorating the work of Martin Luther King Jr. inhabits a unique position this year, coming just days before a change in presidential leadership following a divisive campaign season, officials, activists and community members said during a number of events Monday.

"The game can no longer be played the way it's been played before," said Adrianne Slash, a program director at Leadership Indianapolis, speaking about civil rights at a panel discussion.

The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity led dozens of people from the Indianapolis Urban League to the Madam Walker Theatre, carrying a wreath of white flowers and singing "This Little Light of Mine." The event continued at the theater, a stronghold of African-American culture and history, with a discussion among young community leaders.

The community members talked about equity, not just equality, that it means that not everyone simply attends school, but rather, everyone attends a quality school. They talked about real inclusion, not just an invitation.

"People have a problem with the phrase, 'Black Lives Matter,'" said activist Dominic Dorsey II. "You can't even say we matter?"

Indianapolis Recorder editor-in-chief Ebony Chappel spoke of an "assault on the truth" in today's media climate. She referenced a recent news conference in which Trump refused to answer questions from a CNN reporter after the outlet aired a critical story. Chappel said media access remains a problem here in Indianapolis, too, as the city's black newspaper has been, she said, "shut out by certain political parties."

In this backdrop, the panelists spoke about the importance of unity, continuing to push forward for progress and push back against intolerance and exclusion.

Dorsey called for inclusion within, welcoming lesbian and gay members of the community, single mothers and those with criminal records. Jimmie McMillian, an Indianapolis attorney, said the community members are all linked.

"What happens to the brother in corporate America affects the brother in the hood," McMillian said.

Brandon Randall, program director at the Bloom Project, Inc, which provides mentoring opportunities for teenage boys and men, said as a white man, he wants to generate conversations about white privilege, even though it makes some people uncomfortable.

As a final question to the panel, Dr. David Hampton, senior pastor of the Light of the World Christian Church and a deputy mayor, posed the question: "After the inauguration, how will things change?"

They answered that they will work harder. "The work is going to be intensified," said Maureen Duncan of the Indiana NAACP.

"We've always been fighters," Dorsey said.

Call IndyStar reporter Madeline Buckley at (317) 444-6083. Follow her on Twitter: @Mabuckley88.