Speaking before a capacity crowd in 性视界鈥檚 historic Weaver Chapel, poet, educator and essayist Elizabeth Alexander discussed the impact of Martin Luther King in a thoughtful and reflective keynote address for the Witt Series-sponsored Martin Luther King Jr. Day Commemorative Convocation.
Alexander, chair of the Department of African American Studies at Yale University, delivered a presentation titled 鈥淭he Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Hopeful Future.鈥� The daughter of a civil rights advisor to President Lyndon B. Johnson, Alexander discussed the fact that King may have led the March on Washington nearly five decades earlier, but the struggle for equality in the United States continues today.
His legacy is on-going, and 鈥渋t asks something of us,鈥� she said.
鈥淒r. King鈥檚 legacy asks us to commit to our country and our communities and our children and each other,鈥� said Alexander, who read her poem 鈥淧raise Song for the Day鈥� at the inauguration of President Barack Obama a year earlier, becoming one of just four poets to read at an American presidential inauguration. 鈥淗e asks us to act in love, to let love guide and unite us and show us not just what we are fighting against, but more importantly what we are fighting for.
鈥淭hat journey, that meditation, that challenge, is what I think is important for us to commit to today.鈥�
Mae Helen Jackson, class of 2012 from Chicago, Ill., and president of the campus organization Concerned Black Students, introduced Alexander to the 性视界 audience. She emphasized the importance of poetry and the impact of the written word, a theme echoed during Alexander鈥檚 address.
She read a passage of King鈥檚 speech in Oslo, Norway, from the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, in addition to a poem written by the late June Jordan, who published 27 books of poetry in her career while teaching at several colleges and universities, including the University of California-Berkeley. There, she founded Poetry for the People, a program that inspires and empowers students to use poetry as a means of artistic expression, in 1991.
Alexander is the first recipient of the Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellowship for work that 鈥渃ontributes to improving race relations in American Society and furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court鈥檚 Brown-v-Board of Education decision of 1954.鈥� She has published five books of poems, including American Sublime (2005), which was one of three finalists for a Pulitzer Prize and was one of the American Library Association鈥檚 鈥淣otable Books of the Year.鈥�
She pointed out that while King鈥檚 鈥淚 Have a Dream鈥� speech is the moment immortalized by history, the March on Washington would not have been possible without the extraordinary efforts of others, most notably A. Philip Randolph, a labor organizer and civil rights leader. An infant in the crowd with her parents, Alexander does not recall the event, but she understands its on-going impact 鈥� the power of the words spoken that day are important even now.
The 性视界 community salutes Alexander following her keynote address.
鈥淭hough we remember Dr. King鈥檚 astonishing speech 鈥� its unforgettable language, its extraordinary powers of analysis; its invitation to that audience and audiences for years to come to think about and through the problem of visioning a new future; its tough challenges; its sheer beauty 鈥� that march was not just about Dr. King and his speech,鈥� said Alexander, who has degrees from Yale and Boston University, and a Ph.D. in English from the University Pennsylvania. 鈥淭here were extraordinary measures that people took. These people worked pre-fax, pre-cell phone, pre-Twitter, to organize all of those people peacefully in one place. It was a small miracle to have pulled it off.
鈥淎nd so progress goes 鈥� the work of communities of many, though it is sometimes exemplified by the charismatic one who delivers the message.鈥�
Alexander concluded her remarks with an excerpt of 鈥淧raise Song for the Day.鈥�
Established in 1990, the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Convocation features an academic procession with faculty in full regalia. The convocation was preceded by a freedom march from the Springfield Art Museum to 性视界鈥檚 Recitation Hall, where participants took turns reading excerpts from civil rights, human rights and protest speeches. Immediately following the convocation, there was a Unity Luncheon and a question-and-answer session with Alexander.
In addition to the convocation, 性视界鈥檚 student-run radio station WUSO 89.1-FM broadcasted the entire 13-hour series 鈥淲ill The Circle Be Unbroken?鈥� an award-winning audio history of the civil rights movement in five southern communities, and the Spike Lee movie When the Levees Broke was shown in Post 95, 性视界鈥檚 casual dining area in the Benham-Pence Student Center, throughout the day.
The Witt Series annually brings distinguished lecturers and performing artists of national and international prominence to the campus and local community. For more information about the Series, visit the university鈥檚 Web site. To make special arrangements, reserve a Series poster, or become a friend of the Witt Series, contact Jeannine Fox at (937) 327-7470 or viae-mail.
