On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Human Rights Committee of the City of Keene and the Monadnock Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Coalition (MDEIB) came together to mark the day not just with words, but with practice. Two events, different in format but deeply connected in purpose, invited our community to slow down, lean in, and reflect on what it truly means to live Dr. King’s call to justice, courage, and love in action.
A Morning of Leadership and Listening
The day began with a Civic Leaders Breakfast featuring Adar Cohen, who challenged those in the room to think differently about leadership in this moment. Rather than focusing on authority or position, the conversation centered on connection first.
Participants were invited to ask curious questions, listen generously, and consider how trust is built through everyday interactions. It was less about having the right answers and more about creating the conditions where honest dialogue can happen. In a time when public discourse often feels rushed and reactive, the breakfast modeled a quieter, braver approach: pause, listen, connect.
An Evening of Story and Sacrifice
Later that day, community members gathered for a screening of Am I, Send Me: The Journey of Jonathan Daniels, at the Keene Public Library, for a powerful documentary completed in 2003 and produced by Larry Benaquist and William Sullivan, retired faculty members at Keene State College. The film aired nationally on PBS and is narrated by Sam Waterston.
The film tells the story of Jonathan Daniels, a Keene resident whose life and death are woven into the fabric of the national civil rights movement. The son of a physician in Keene, Daniels graduated from the Virginia Military Institute and earned a scholarship to Harvard University. While preparing for the Episcopal ministry, he made a life-altering decision to leave his studies and travel south in March of 1965 to support voter registration efforts in central Alabama.
Working alongside leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Stokely Carmichael, Daniels took part in work that was dangerous, exhausting, and deeply necessary. When others left due to the risks, he stayed. On August 20, 1965, Jonathan Daniels was killed while pulling a young Black woman, a fellow civil rights worker, out of the path of a shotgun fired by a deputy sheriff.
Shared Threads: Then and Now
While one event focused on present-day leadership and the other on a historical life, the themes were unmistakably aligned.
Both asked us to consider what it means to show up when it’s uncomfortable. Both reminded us that courage often looks like choosing people over safety, listening over certainty, and action over silence. The breakfast urged participants to connect first. The film showed what can happen when someone takes that idea all the way to its moral conclusion.
Together, the events created space for reflection that felt both local and universal. Jonathan Daniels was from Keene. The responsibility to carry forward the values he embodied also lives here.
Carrying the Day Forward
MLK Day is not meant to be a pause from our routines, but a reset of our intentions. The conversations sparked at the breakfast and the story shared on screen both point to the same quiet challenge: How do we practice justice in our daily lives? Who are we listening to? Who are we protecting? Where are we willing to stand firm when it would be easier to step back?
The Human Rights Committee of the City of Keene and us are grateful to everyone who joined us in honoring Dr. King’s legacy not just by remembering the past, but by recommitting to connection, curiosity, and courageous action right here in our community.