The world needs a new group of leaders guided by principles of hope and justice, College of Arts and Sciences history professor Alison Blakeley remembers Martin Luther King, Jr. telling him in 1959.
“We don’t need another Moses,” Blakeley recalled King telling him. “We just need a cohort around the world dedicated to these positive principles.”
Blakeley and a panel of other experts Thursday night discussed who will pick up King’s legacy as a moral leader. More than 30 students and faculty members attended the talk in the Photonics Center, entitled “The Continuing Legacy of Martin Luther King.”
A panel of six Boston University faculty members and Gary Okihiro, the director of the Institute for Race and Ethnicity at Columbia University, discussed the continued relevance of King’s teachings during the talk.
Even though he died almost 25 years ago, King’s speeches still serve as an important commentary on social issues in the United States, Okihiro said.
“A time comes when silence is betrayal,” Okihiro read from a transcript of King’s 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam.” “We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision.”
Okihiro used King’s speech about the Vietnam War to shed light on America’s current involvement in Iraq. According to Okihiro, America’s existing image – associated with democracy and freedom – will change to an image of violence and militarism if the country doesn’t make a significant and profound transformation in its life and policy.
The question of leadership and who will come to the forefront to transmit King’s legacy and his belief in revolution without violence was one of the most heavily discussed issues for both the panel and the students who attended the forum.
“I feel like we are just standing on the shoulders and mimicking things that my generation has only seen on TV,” one BU graduate student said during a question and answer period. “I feel like there’s no fire anymore.”
CAS African studies professor Linda Heywood told audience members that the only way for them to make significant social change is to mobilize and consolidate their efforts.
“Students today need to figure out a way to continue to move those same mountains that Dr. King moved,” she said.
Many students who attended the forum, such as CAS graduate student Kavita Ramdya, said they are aware of their responsibility to transmit King’s legacy. But Ramdya said the approach King used in the 1960s is no longer applicable today.
“I don’t think that the tradition of non-violence is really realistic today, especially with the war on terrorism,” she said. “I think living with authenticity and living with morals in our own private and professional lives is one way of being an activist.”
CAS sophomore Courtney Walker said she disagreed with Ramdya because “there’s still a need for someone of King’s charisma and leadership abilities in our generation.”
Walker said entertainment seems to be African-Americans’ most visible form of achievement and that some people in the industry could use their influence to move her generation in a more positive direction toward social change.
“Maybe some of the people in that industry could take more initiative to lead our culture in the right direction,” she said. “Like if Jay-Z came out and started talking about a revolution instead of pimps and brushing dirt off your shoulders, do you know how many people would follow?”