In his State of the Union address in 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.” Those words echo today.

From Monday, Nov. 6 to Saturday, Nov. 11, the St. John Fisher campus was the site of a weeklong series of events based on those freedoms.  Known as Four Freedoms Week, the events are centered around the four freedoms outlined by Roosevelt: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

The event is in its third year and is designed to “examine all the issues in our community that involve the four freedoms,” according to Four Freedoms’ Chair Jackie Morrison.

Morrison, a junior, founded the idea of conceptualizing Roosevelt’s four freedoms with classmate John Snyder when they were both freshmen and part of the club Students With A Vision (SWAV), which continues to be involved in the coordinating efforts.

An on-going piece of Four Freedoms Week was “The Clothesline Project,” sponsored by Women and Gender Studies (WGST) Club.

According to WGST Club Vice President Karen Perry, the T-shirts were displayed to represent freedom from fear. The T-shirts displayed messages condemning domestic violence and rape.

“I feel like a lot of people misunderstand the project,” Perry said. “There has been a lot of talk about it being inappropriate and distasteful, but this is the same kind of project that is going on all around the country. The point of it is to ‘air society's dirty laundry.’ It is not supposed to be pleasant; it's rape.”

Four Freedoms Week also included presenters, authors, student panels and civil rights activists.

The week kicked off with Dr. Carolyn Vacca, professor of American history at the College, examining the background of Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech and the context in which it took place. Vacca’s presentation also took a closer look at this year’s focal freedom: freedom from want.

Vacca followed by moderating a student panel called “Fisher and Katrina: Disaster, Relief and Reflection.” Tim Wise closed with remarks.

Wise is among the most respected anti-racist writers and educators in the United States. He was this year’s keynote speaker, discussing racism as well as other various elements involved in freedom. He is the author of several books including White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son.

There are many issues enveloped in modern society that make the freedoms important, according to event organizers. Among those are hunger and poverty.

Sometimes, students are asked to think outside the box. Thursday evening, after the Hunger Banquet in the Campus Center, SWAV and “Boxtown” Committee Chair Caitlin Pfaffenbach asked students to think inside the box. Students slept in cardboard boxes overnight as an attempt to make people aware of poverty and homelessness.

About 22 St. John Fisher students, including English professor Dr. Bill Waddell, camped on Lavery Lawn.

“You get to think about what it is like not to have a choice,” Waddell said.

Rochester ranks first in the state in child poverty and 11th in the nation according to a recent Channel 10 News report.

As the two burning barrels flickered and students passed by Boxtown with wonder, Snyder tried to inform them of SWAV’s goal.

The weeklong series also included the play Spinning Into Butter by Rebecca Gilman, in which race and prejudice are major themes.

Other events and discussions included a panel convened by Dr. Jeff Liles called “For Worship’s Sake: Freedom of Speech in the Religious World.” A panel of four discussed the role of freedom of speech in religion.

The most discussed issue covered during Four Freedoms Week was racism.

James Westbrooks, a former member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), lectured on Nov. 7 about the importance of these freedoms and the effect on racism.  The SNCC was a national movement to help African Americans overcome inequality through nonviolent means. Education was a vital part of the movement.

Westbrooks started by saying, “You’re going to feel some things you have never felt before.” Westbrooks added that he has felt those things. As a child, a white policeman beat his sister Lulu Westbrook Griffin with a baseball bat (she dropped the ‘s’ in her maiden name). Westbrooks said he could only watch. His sister was thrown in a stockade with 31 other children from the Pentecostal Christian Church of Americus in Georgia. She remained there for 45 days.

Griffin joined Westbrooks in his lecture and presentation. Westbrooks encouraged the students to join in on the singing.

Even though SNCC dissolved in 1971, Westbrooks fights on. He shares his journey with about 20 colleges nationally every year.

Many of the students were left in awe by Westbrooks’ account of racial disparity in the 1960s. His goal of inviting students to make a change rang clear throughout the entire week. Westbrooks ended his lecture by saying, “If not me, who; if not now, when?”

Email address: kmf03684@sjfc.edu