The day before the nation celebrated the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 20, Dashiel Tao Harris and Santana Spearman honored his legacy while boxes-deep in assorted toiletries and non-perishable foods at the King Center in Atlanta.
Working from the stage of the downtown facility as well as a nearby screening room, the two student-athletes counted toothbrushes, tubes of deodorant and bags of Nature Valley crunchy granola bars to make sure there was enough for King Center volunteers to distribute across metro Atlanta in the coming days.
Theirs was no ordinary pairing.
Emory University and Vanderbilt University, schools that stand as academic peers but are in different NCAA divisions when it comes to sports, came together as one on a special Day of Service at the King Center.
Nearly 100 student-athletes participated in the project, which included a tour of the center and nearby Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King was a co-pastor with his father, the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr.
As a bonus, the athletes broke bread over lunch from historic Paschal’s, the legendary soul food eatery frequented by King and other civil rights figures.
“Tomorrow being MLK Day, I thought it was a really great way to honor him and what he stands for,” says Harris, a senior with a double major in international studies and film and media who runs on Emory’s track team.
Spearman agrees. A junior majoring in political science who runs track at Vanderbilt, Spearman had participated in several Day of Service opportunities but especially looked forward to volunteering this year because it took place at the King Center.
“Just being here and seeing the memorial, I had to stop and take a breath,” Spearman says.
Emory College associate professor of history Carl Suddler says the two universities agreed to collaborate after a Vanderbilt colleague told him the Tennessee school planned to hold its service day in Atlanta this year and suggested the schools join forces.
Suddler says the program follows the tradition set by David Williams, Vanderbilt’s longtime athletic director, of using student-athletes as volunteers.
Williams — who was the first Black athletic director in the Southeastern Conference — aimed to expose student-athletes to Black history and to foster connections with other young people, faculty and staff, Suddler says. The goal was to bridge the common divide between athletics and the broader campus community, he says.
The program also sought to empower student-athletes to recognize and harness their platforms, encouraging them to cultivate compassion for others and embody the qualities King championed through volunteerism, Suddler says.
The Black female athletic directors at both universities — Keiko Price-Carter at Emory and Candice Storey Lee at Vanderbilt — also supported the joint event, Suddler adds.
Andrew Maraniss, Vanderbilt Athletics’ special projects coordinator, said the university’s Athletics Department selects a different city each year for the students to visit in honor of MLK Day. Going in person makes history tangible, he says.
“The annual goal of this is not to just read about history, but to feel it and to see it and experience it in person,” Maraniss says. “It’s unusual for an athletics department to sponsor a civil rights tour but it really fits with what Vanderbilt Athletics stands for.”
This year’s Day of Service was quick. The Vanderbilt students left Nashville at 6 a.m., arriving at the King Center around 11 a.m. They left by 3:30 p.m., watching a King documentary on the road home.
Emory students had a shorter return to campus but felt an even deeper connection to Atlanta after their service, says Isabel Cohen, a junior majoring in business administration at Goizueta Business School.
“It’s a great way to support a community that supports us,” says Cohen, a member of Emory’s softball team. “Emory has given us so much. We think it’s only fair to give back by supporting the community.”
Suddler says he was encouraged by the students’ response to the event and that he was greatly helped by Tristan Reaves, Emory’s assistant director of student-athlete success programs.
Athletics director Price-Carter, who attended the service day with her infant son Masaya, says that while many laud King for his contributions, few take up his call to action. The pre-MLK Day event demonstrated that students can deliver.
“It’s important to continue to do the work that Dr. King did, which was to give back to the community, to bring people together and to unify,” she says. “And then really to use sport as a platform for social change.”