Window to Hope’s History: April 1968

Any comparison between events is imperfect, particularly those removed from one another by more than 50 years. That said, the mass demonstrations nationwide calling for racial justice following the killing of George Floyd and other Black Americans by police officers in recent months have prompted reflection on similarities to and differences from the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the response to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. At Hope, that response began with a service in Dimnent Memorial Chapel and continued with a silent march through downtown Holland that concluded at Centennial Park, where senior Floyd Brady ’68 (pictured at the right front of the group as it marches north on College Avenue) spoke to a crowd estimated at more than 1,000.