Members of the Tufts community celebrated the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Goddard Chapel at noon on Jan. 26.
Dr. Charles Willie - a longtime expert on the civil rights movement and contemporary of Dr. King - headlined the event.
Willie is the Charles William Eliot Professor Emeritus of the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.
Willie and King attended Morehouse College - a historically black institution in Atlanta, Georgia - as teenagers.
Willie spoke of the influence Morehouse College had on King, which taught him that "justice is love in action" and "justice is fairness."
"When war comes the first casualty is truth," Willie said. "We who ignore corruption become an ally for it." He asserted that hating one's enemies serves only to create more hate. Using King's words, he said, "We must meet physical force with soul force."
Other University leaders also spoke on Dr. King's dreams and beliefs.
Reverend David O'Leary, the University Chaplain, spoke of how King lived his life based on his faith. Scripture was the source of King's civil disobedience movement, O'Leary said, quoting Amos 5:24, "Let justice roll down like the waters."
Following O'Leary's speech, Director of the Africana Center Lisa Coleman recited a Margaret Walker poem entitled "We Have Been Believers."
Dale Bryan, Assistant Director of Peace and Justice Studies, emphasized the importance of participation in contemporary movements. Just as people should rid themselves of the vestiges of superiority based on race or nationality, he said, so too should people rid themselves of sexism and homophobia.
Bryan discussed his belief that King would have opposed sexism and homophobia as well. The question is whether or not one decides to protest. It is "morally relevant to call immoral acts wrong," he said.
Bryan also commented on how the United States government has spent $236 billion on the Iraq War, while the money spent on healthcare or the environment does not even approach this figure. He criticized war as a profit-making enterprise and stressed King's doctrine of non-violence: "We can't all be like Martin Luther King Jr., but we can learn."
University Provost Jamshed Bharucha announced the recipients of the Hall of Diversity Awards. Dr. Christine Jost, George F. Cangiano Jr., Dr. Claire Moore, Dr. Van Toi Vo, Dr. Lonnie Norris, Dr. Samuel Sommers, Marisel Perez, and Sean MacDonald were all recognized for promoting diversity within Tufts.
Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, Director of Tufts Hillel and the University's Jewish chaplain, also spoke.
Quoting from "Why We Went: A Joint Letter from the Rabbis Arrested in St. Augustine, June 19, 1964," he read, "We came because we know that, second only to silence, the greatest danger to man is loss of faith in man's capacity to act."
Along with the speeches, senior Ashley Mitchell, President of the Pan African Alliance, led the audience in singing James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing."
