Commentary: Healing the twin minds of the Twin City: Building a just and united Winston-Salem

By Derwin L. Montgomery In his stirring and provocative address, Dean Corey D.B. Walker challenged us to reimagine what Winston-Salem could be. He painted a vision of a city that doesn’t merely wear the tagline “City of Arts and Innovation,” but embodies deeper values of justice, love, and community – a city where these principles are more than ideals but lived realities. His words were not simply an acknowledgment of the challenges we face but a call to action: to reject complacency, confront our past, and radically transform our collective future. Walker invoked the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., cautioning against reducing King to a sanitized symbol of comfort. Instead, he reminded us of King’s radical message: that true justice demands disruption of the status quo and the courage to live maladjusted to injustice. “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges,” Walker quoted King, pushing us to consider how we, as a community, can embody this ethic of creative maladjustment. Recognizing Our History One of the most impactful aspects of Walker’s speech was his deep dive into Winston-Salem’s history – a dual narrative of progress...