[Dwight Bailey] Hello out there party people, I'm Larry Williamson Jr., director of the Hale Black Cultural Center, here to welcome you to our first ever ODI Couch Concert. We can't see each other in person this year, but we're still able to come together from the comfort of our homes. We're celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion this year, that's 50 years of transformative power, that's 50 years of fighting for students, faculty and staff from every background here at Ohio State.
We'd like to thank our partners from the Black Alumni Society, the Latinx Alumni Society and the Young Scholars Program Alumni Society. The support you show our scholars, our programs, and your fellow alumni is so crucial. i'm encouraging everyone out there who isn't involved with these alumni groups to get engaged because whether it's raising money for student scholarships or engaging with our young people as mentors, our alumni groups are important to the work we do.
To kick it off tonight we have a special presentation from a current Young Scholar Program student, Playon Patrick. You may have heard of Playon. He stole the show from President Obama when he introduced him with a powerful spoken word piece before a national town hall event. He's an amazing performer, and he's written a spoken word piece for ODI's 50th anniversary. I think you'll enjoy it... take it away Playon.
[Playon Patrick] The Key. There has never been a more peaceful time in America, our bodies have been in the streets since these streets were built. We are unaware of the tragedies that have set into the concrete hidden from the blood-boiling light of the sun. We never talk about how they stripped the humanity off our backs, little did we know how they would tax our backs and labor and love wishes and dreams, they folded our language into the back of our tongues, taught us that we are unteachable brutes and coons. Reading and writing are not tools for fieldwork so those are stolen and hidden away too. They say education is the key to oppression. We forgot there were golden cities with our names on them. You forgot our bodies in the birth of a nation, you forgot my people are reminiscing the feets that marched on these streets and demanded for anything better America is missing all those lynched men swinging from the trees like monkeys, apes or fruits ripened by the white man's hands. Make America great again.
When, dare I say when, when have my people ever touched the glass ceiling, when did our culture become the backbone of this backwards nation, when did they tell us of the atrocities we'd survived hiding a dark past amidst dark bodies. Dare I say when we were educated. In 1890 the federal government passed the second Morrill Act that stated if Black students weren't allowed to enroll in the existing colleges, then a separate institution was to be made for them. Another extension of separate but equal. Somehow we began to equate a sliver of sympathy with equality we are given inches and expected to run the mile we do everything with a tool box of hand-me-downs, we are the makers of everything and yet the benefactors of nothing.
Almost a hundred years later Black students were still struggling to maintain in the safety of these white walls. In 1968 a protest broke out that would change colleges around the country. On April 26 1968, Black students around The Ohio State University banded together to protest students being kicked off the university shuttle bus. The OSU 34 stood in the face of white supremacy and shouted, our lives are worth more than second-rate education, worth more than KKK messages scribbled into our doors, worth more than sitting on the back of buses and still getting kicked off of them. Eight of the 34 students were expelled from the university that day and eight students still rightfully protested the injustice present on this campus. Their voices echo for us to do the same to protest and band together when inequality seems to be knocking on the front door, when colleges, paper after paper, and you can't remember why you're here like what possessed me to take up such a challenge...remember we are excellent because we've never been given the opportunity to be anything else. From this protest the Office of Diversity and Inclusion was born here at The Ohio State University and for 50 years they have worked to uphold the success of young minority students. I mean year after year, I mean fighting for our spots on the rosters, I mean our bodies were weights before we ever put them on. I'm talking about Marquis Gaines who is a pro athlete in Spain shooting hoops with a degree in human development. Who says we can't dream and go to school, too, I'm talking about Alfonso Gillette who is giving back to the community as we speak. He's worked in South High School and at Livingston Elementary to help uplift boys in need. No I mean Dr. Yasmine Irizarry, who fought through college with a kid in the right hand and coffee in the other. Her late nights of tears and discomfort. Have you ever had to choose between life and being a mother. We are seeing dreams come true. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion is yet another victory in a line of winnings that go unseen, that are taken out of the light, but for tonight and forevermore we will share the best parts of us first.
And if you happen to forget where we come from, promise you'll remember this moment first.
Wow that was really something else, Playon. I think he got some fists in the air all across this country. I'm really not sure how you follow that, but we do have a great band for you that's going to do their best.
The Dwight Bailey Band is here to get those heads nodding with their mix of smooth jazz and R&B. Dwight is a talented bassist who plays all over the world with some of the biggest stars of gospel, jazz and blues. From Dr. John to the Blind Boys of Alabama to Bobby Jones, Dwight has played with them all and many, many more. So let's get those hands in the air out there for the Dwight Bailey Band. They are all yours, Dwight, take it away.
[Dwight Bailey] Thank you, Larry Williamson for the warm introduction. We appreciate being here and we'd like to say happy anniversary to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion celebrating 50 years of transformation power. Thank you so much for all that you do. We're excited to spend this time with you and thanks for coming to hang out with us on this session, so sit back relax and enjoy thanks
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[Dwight Bailey] How about that for Vernon Harrison on piano and vocals and the wonderful Jerry Powell on drums.
And I am Dwight Bailey, thank you so much for hanging out with us. We hope you're having a good time. We're going to continue and play some more tunes just for you.
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[Dwight Bailey] Ray Charles classic there
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[Dwight Bailey] On keyboards, Jerry Powell, on drums Dwight Bailey. Hope you're enjoying yourself, moving around a little bit, enjoying yourself all right.
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[Dwight Bailey] Mr. Vernon Harrison ladies and gentlemen.
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[Dwight Bailey] Once again, Mr. Vernon Hairston on keyboards tonight and the wonderful Jerry Powell on drums tonight
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[Dwight Bailey] Thank you, Office of Diversity and Inclusion for having us, we've had a wonderful time playing music just for you. Once again, I'd like to thank my good friends Mr. Vernon Hairston and Mr. Jerry Powell for joining me this evening so we could bring a special Couch Concert just for you, and happy anniversary to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. May you have continued success as you transform even more in the years to come.