One-woman reenactment to kick off MLK celebrations

Actress E.P. McKnight will kick off the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations with her one-woman show about a woman’s tireless struggle against civil injustice.

On Sunday, Los Angeles-based actress E.P. McKnight will take the stage at 3 p.m. in the Wittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union to perform a reenactment of Fannie Lou Hamer.

Hamer, the youngest of 19 children, died in 1977 and is remembered for her motto of being “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” An African-American woman and sharecropper on a cotton plantation, Hamer encountered many obstacles trying to exercise her right to vote in the early ’60s. In spite of police beatings, death threats and gun shots, Hamer ensured that the right for all to vote was not only acknowledged but also enforced across the country.

The members of the planning committee for this year’s MLK Day celebration felt McKnight’s production was a relevant and entertaining way to kick off the commemorative events, said Roberta Radovich, program coordinator in the Office of Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs and chairwoman of this year’s planning committee.

The MLK Day speaker is one of the signature events of the MLK Day celebrations.
The show follows Hamer through her journey from the cotton fields of Mississippi to leading the National Democratic Convention, McKnight said.

As writer and lone actress of the dramatic production “I Question America,” McKnight said it is important to share Hamer’s story with others.

“Originally my director encouraged me to take this one-woman role,” McKnight said. “I read an article in a New Jersey paper, and as I did more research I became enthralled in her contribution to the civil rights movement.”

After more than 10 years of performing this act, McKnight continues to book performances around the country.

“If Dr. King Jr. was with us today we would like to believe that one of his most important goals would be taking the right to vote to heart,” Radovich said.