University Remembers MLK Speech, Welcomes New DICE VP at Occupy SLU Event
10/13/2022
October 12 is a big day in SLU history.
Martin Luther King Jr. visited the Saint Louis University campus 58 years ago on that day and stepped into the then-West Pine Gym to deliver remarks two days before he won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize and two months after his defining "I Have A Dream" speech. The Occupy SLU protests began on that day eight years ago.
To mark those anniversaries, members of the University community gathered again at an Occupy SLU commemoration event, which also doubled as a welcome event for Rochelle D. Smith, M.S., as SLU’s new Vice President for Diversity and Innovative Community Engagement.
As part of the annual Occupy SLU commemoration, MLK Scholars read excerpts from King’s speeches, including sections of his speech delivered in what is now the Center for Global Citizenship.
Before the nine scholars read their excerpts, SLU President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., delivered opening remarks and helped to connect the past with the present.
Pestello drew a line from King and the civil rights movement to the present day at Saint Louis University. Pestello noted the Montgomery bus boycott, which started in 1955, was one of the foundational moments of the civil rights movement. The boycott protesting racial segregation on public transit in Montgomery lasted more than a year.
One of the participants in the bus boycotts was a man named J.C. Smith, Pestello said. During the protests, he was arrested alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The name was important to Pestello, and SLU, because J.C. Smith was the father of the late Jonathan C. Smith, Ph.D., SLU’s inaugural Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement.
Jonathan Smith died suddenly on June 19, 2021, at the age of 61 following a stroke. Pestello spoke highly of Smith during Wednesday’s event. He talked about Jonathan Smith’s legacy at SLU — a legacy that is tied to Occupy SLU.
During six days of peaceful occupation at Saint Louis University's campus clock tower that included daily teach-ins and community conversations, Jonathan Smith, then faculty member in the African American Studies Program, was heavily involved. Smith took his classes to the clock tower, where demonstrators had set up a camp, and invited activists into his classroom. He marshaled his church to bring umbrellas, water and blankets to campus.
While he didn’t participate in official negotiations, he had conversations with students about some of the things that ended up in the Clock Tower Accords, which peacefully resolved the weeklong campus encampment.
It was during the Occupy SLU protests that Pestello, new to the University, said he got to know Jonathan Smith. Following Occupy SLU, Jonathan Smith was chosen to become SLU’s first assistant to the president for diversity and community engagement — a move that was celebrated by colleagues and students across the campus. In 2016, his position was elevated to chief diversity officer, and he was promoted once again in 2017 to vice president for diversity and community engagement.
Amber Johnson, Ph.D., served as SLU’s interim vice president for diversity and innovative community engagement following Jonathan Smith’s passing. His permanent replacement, Rochelle Smith, was appointed to the position in the spring. Rochelle Smith, Jonathan’s wife, started Wednesday.
Pestello used the event to welcome Rochelle Smith to SLU.
“Today we welcome a new member to our community,” he said. “We welcome the daughter-in-law of the late J.C. Smith, the widow of the late Jonathan Smith, who now takes up the torch to gather us arm-in-arm to lead us.”
Rochelle Smith has devoted much of her career to tackling complex institutional challenges with a data-driven and research-based approach. Making campuses more welcoming for people from backgrounds historically underrepresented in higher education has been one of her priorities.
Smith was the inaugural associate dean of diversity and inclusion and associate chief diversity officer at the Yale School of Medicine. Before Yale, Smith worked at Washington University in St. Louis for 22 years, most recently as the assistant provost for diversity initiatives. At Washington University, she founded the Diversity Pipeline Consortium for STEM and co-designed two faculty-of-color retention programs, among other accomplishments.
More Occupy SLU commemorative events are scheduled this month, including a closing reception on Tuesday, Oct. 25, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the GCG Auditorium. A complete schedule can be found online.