By KELIN MARK
For six decades, the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Dinner at Indiana University Indianapolis, formerly IUPUI, served as a cornerstone of the academic year. It was a bridge between the campus and the city’s Black community, a space of reflection and a formal acknowledgment of the civil rights legacy within a predominantly white institution (PWI).
The MLK Dinner at IU Indianapolis has been a collaboration between the university and the Black Student Union (BSU). Over the decades, it became a visible marker of belonging and recognition — a public moment where Black students and the broader community could celebrate legacy, leadership and culture in a setting that often doesn’t automatically affirm them.
The dinner has also hosted major figures such as Angela Davis, Mae Jemison and Bobby Seale, underscoring that this was never just a meal. It was a stage for ideas, identity, and intergenerational connection. And then the dinner was canceled by IU Indy due to budget constraints.
Celebration
I am a big believer in celebrating yourself. Your happiness cannot be tied to someone else’s decision to pat you on the back or to throw you a party. The BSU students at IU Indianapolis learned a valuable lesson and moved forward with their own MLK celebration, after the cancellation of the dinner. Our young people are at a crossroads that their parents are facing daily. We are faced with the challenge of the dismantling of what some believe is ‘Black culture, traditions, and institutions’ in the name of ending DEI and Woke policies.
As we all face these challenges, I want to encourage students who attend PWIs to begin to plan, organize and take control of their own celebrations. Our young people can no longer operate in a position where they are subject to the politics of now.
Black student organizations must seek partnerships with local Black businesses and alumni networks to fund events independently of university budgets. Black students on PWI campuses must think strategically and maintain their leverage. Consider the following:
- Demand contractual commitment: If traditional events are to be held at PWIs, student leaders should push for these events to be codified in university bylaws or long-term endowments to prevent “reimagining” cancellations.
- Value cultural capital: Students should recognize that their presence at a PWI is a benefit to the school’s “diversity” metrics. That presence is a leverage point that should be used to demand permanent cultural infrastructure. For example, the utilization of students’ images in publications that show diversity and market diversity should be subject to student approval.
The cancellation of the IU Indianapolis MLK dinner was a disappointment, but it was also an unveiling. It revealed the precarious nature of institutional support and ignited a flame of self-sufficiency in the student body. As we look toward the future, the goal isn’t just to get the dinner back — it’s to ensure that we never again have to ask for permission to celebrate our own greatness.
Liberation
The cancellation at IU Indianapolis serves as a stark wake-up call regarding the dangers of institutional dependency. For decades, African American programs at PWIs have often been subject to the whims of shifting political climates — DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) budget cuts, and administrative “rebranding.” Oftentimes these shifts are done without Black voices at the table and at the expense of Black students.
There is a fundamental vulnerability in allowing an outside entity to curate, fund and host your cultural milestones. When a PWI hosts an MLK dinner, it is often seen as a gift or a “service” provided to the Black community. However, as the IU Indianapolis case proves, what is given by administration, can be taken by administration.
It is up to our Black students and the Black community to take ownership of what we value in our culture and find ways to sustain and support it, without the help of institutions who fear political retribution. We cannot afford to expose our traditions to ‘budget restraints,’ but instead create traditions and events that are rooted in community involvement and invested in community impact.
I commend the students of the Black Student Union at IU Indianapolis for making their voices heard and moving forward. The Indianapolis community should rally around them to support them.
We must move from being guests in institutional celebrations to being the architects of our own cultural narratives.
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