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For those students who attended the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Gathering on Monday, it was a day of remembrance and commemoration. Rev. Howard McLendon of Campus Ministry orchestrated a rousing, two-hour memorial service open to students, faculty, and the public for King and his memory. The service included performances by "United Voices of Freedom," a joint choir consisting of Against the Current, the Liturgy Arts Group, and the Voices of Imani, as well as a dance interpretation by the Phaymus dance ensemble. The musical program drew heavily on the tradition and spirit of the Civil Rights Movement.
Other groups involved in the organization of the event were the Black Student Forum, Caribbean Culture Club, DIOP, Episcopal Chaplaincy, FACES, Inter-Faith Dialogue Club, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Committee, and United in Christ.
"His message resonates not with just one group, but it is an inclusive message. His message of equality and fairness … is still vital to conversations in our institution today," said Dr. Lillie Albert, professor in the Lynch School of Education and faculty advisor to FACES. "What King stood for is not different from the mission of Boston College. We can relate it to 'men and women for others'[and] seeking social justice."
The night's event started with a video presentation and some short readings, followed by brief reflections on King's legacy and its function in the world today by Jeremy Marks, A&S '09, and Jacqueline Grant, A&S '08.
Marks called the students to remember King, but to strive to go further than simply honoring past deeds.
"Our challenge is not to remember the work of King but to recognize injustice in our world today and acknowledge our own complicity in that injustice," he said. "The challenge is to look in ourselves and look around us and see what needs to be done."
King's influence and significance in the fight for human rights did not end with his death, but continues today.
Marks said that it is up to the current generation of students at BC, as well as all people who observe an injustice in the world, to take a stance for the oppressed.
He ended his call to justice by saying, "We rise up and speak when it is far more customary to be silent."
Grant also reflected on the continuing importance of King's legacy in the world today.
She observed that although King achieved much in his lifetime in securing civil liberties for all people, but there is still much to be done.
"Civil liberties were granted only in name. The goals achieved by the Civil Rights Movement did not remove the underlying problems of systematic racism that persist today," Grant said.
She acknowledged that the problems that King addressed are still very much alive today and in more numerous forms.
"Racism has become multidimensional, operating in different forms and in different spheres, and so for our younger generation the goals are much more ambiguous because we are not all united in identifying a common problem."
However, Grant does look to the current youth generation with the hope that it can rise up to the challenges that our modern world faces with the aid of King's work.
"Dr. King's message is universal and transcends race, hatred, and division because his wisdom and belief in a more just world can be applied to all races and all struggles that our nation faces."
The main speaker of the evening was Rev. Charles R. Stith, the director of the Boston University African Presidential Archives and Research Center and the former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania.
He followed the two student speakers in his acclaim of Dr. King's legacy and the relevance that it still has in the world today.
Stith said that King was not much older than the students at BC when he assumed his initial position as the leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association.
"When Martin was thrust into the leadership of the Montgomery Improvement Association, he did not see himself as the head of a great political or social movement," Stith said.
"Martin did not set out to lead a movement, he was simply trying to be faithful in the moment. He did not set out to be a civil rights icon or a Nobel laureate. It is this challenge that I want to charge you with this evening. This is the only fitting memorial to Martin."
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