“It is a great pleasure and a great privilege to be an alumnus of Wesleyan University,” said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The audio recording of King’s remarks played Monday afternoon in Memorial Chapel at a celebration of King’s life. King spoke at Wesleyan in June of 1964, when he gave the baccalaureate address and received an honorary doctorate from the University.
The service, sponsored by the Center for Community Partnerships and the Office for Affirmative Action, used recordings, photographs, reflections, and music to recall King’s personal connection to Wesleyan as well as his message of equality and nonviolence.
“I first encountered Dr. King in the 1950’s when I was a grad student at the University of Chicago, when the Civil Rights movement was gaining momentum,” said Associate Professor of Religion Emeritus Jerome Long. “He defined the struggle in moral language, transcending political [rhetoric]…he spoke on behalf of the poor, the powerless, the disenfranchised, the forgotten, the abused.”
Long highlighted the relevance of King’s words today.
“The gap between wealthy and poor is increasing,” he said. “Public schools are still segregated. We are in a war that is diverting resources from those that need it most […] In remembering Dr. King today we have to remember what he lived, and ultimately died, for.”
Jason C. Harris ’09 spoke on how King’s work has touched his life.
“It is because of Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglas, and other abolitionists that I am physically free as an African American person, but it is because of Martin Luther King, Jr. that I am socially and mentally free,” he said. “When I look at my skin color, I see what Martin Luther King stood for—not black power and superiority, but simple equality.”
Harris appreciates that King never sought to be great, but instead tried to do great things.
“He did not desire to be famous as a great orator or civil rights leader, he simply was a person that saw a need in the eyes of his people, a need for societal reformation, and sought to fulfill it,” Harris said. “I wish today that we could draw from his example.”
Adjunct Assistant Professor and Visiting Writer of African American Studies Kate Rushin commented on King’s words.
“It was really powerful to hear his voice in this beautiful chapel,” she said.
Rushin invoked the Civil Rights struggle through poetry. She recounted the waiting, walking and standing she experienced before paying her respects to another Civil Rights leader, Rosa Parks, as her body lay in the Capital’s rotunda last October. She equated the experience with a pilgrimage.
Protestant Chaplain Reverend Gary Comstock noted that King’s words, although aimed at political change, were never like that of a politician.
“Frankly, I don’t even recognize the religion many politicians preach,” he said. “Martin Luther King, Jr. was such a leader who rescued the Bible and faith from holding people down.”
The celebration concluded with musician Noah Baerman, who played “We Shall Overcome” on the piano. Professor Long implored those in attendance to stand, and some were moved to tears as the congregation began to sing.
Perhaps it was, as King said in his baccalaureate address on the proscenium behind Olin Library, “a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”
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