AndoverMagSpring2015

MLK Day 2015by Kristin Bair O’Keeffe and Steve PorterPhotos by Gil TalbotTwenty-five years ago, on the morning of Martin LutherKing Jr. Day, Brian Gittens ’89 sat down on the stepsof Samuel Phillips Hall with his boom box. Instead ofattending classes, he played a recording of Dr. King’s“I Have a Dream” speech over and over. It was a personalact of civil disobedience motivated by his frustration overAndover’s limited acknowledgment of MLK Day as thenational holiday that it was.As the hours passed, dozens of students—and evensome faculty members—joined him. By the end of thatday in 1989, Gittens’ message had been received. PAinstituted its first full-day MLK Day Celebration the followingyear.This year, on January 19, Gittens—now Dr. Gittens—returned to campus as the keynote speaker forthe 25th anniversary of the celebratory event that heBrian Gittens (and at right with Head of SchoolJohn Palfrey, former associate head of schoolRebecca Sykes, and CAMD DeanLinda Carter Griffith)Al PereiraMLK Day 2015 included 15 workshops and presentations that explored issuesof equity and inclusion, including a faculty-only workshop featuring DebbyIrving, author of Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race.Brian Gittens ’89talks to supporters onthe steps of Sam Phil.Use of the N WordIn a well-attended interactiveworkshop led by French instructorEmmanuel Odjo, students and facultyshared their candid and sometimessurprising thoughts on the uses andabuses of the incendiary “N word.”Whether used as slur or slang, ithas the power to stir strong emotion.Madison Pettaway ’16, whoassisted Odjo with the presentation,said afterward, “Andoverneeds to continue conversationsabout [offensive language], not justignore or eliminate the words.”•1852Abbot administrationeliminates the school’scentral mission as ateachers’ school.| | | | PA’s Class of 1854Nancy Judson HasseltineWriter Elizabeth Stuart Phelps recalls Andover Hill during26 Andover | Spring 2015•1854establishes the “Students’Educational Fund” to aid“indigent young men.”•1854is appointed Abbot Academy’sfirst female principal since itsfounding in 1829.•1858–1865Harriet Beecher Stowe’s residency: “[It was] a heavily masculineplace.... I have sometimes wondered what would have been the fateeven of my mother, had [Stowe] lived to work her power to its bloom.”