Marc Lamont Hill said remembrance is important, but that remembrance, celebration and action all come with a price, and Martin Luther King, Jr. paid the ultimate price.

Syracuse University held its 31st annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration on Sunday in the Carrier Dome with about 2,000 people in attendance. The program began at 5:30 p.m., but the doors for the event opened at 4 p.m. Hill, an award-winning journalist; host of HuffPost Live; and a BET News and CNN political contributor, was the keynote speaker for the event.

The MLK Celebration was kicked off by a call-to-order video that presented the history of the celebration, highlighting that SU began this celebration in honor of King in 1985 — a year before MLK Day was made a national holiday.

The video made clear that the goal of the celebration from the beginning was to create an atmosphere where people from separate roads could come together no matter what their religious affiliation was or what community they came from. It was created to be something with lasting value, according to the video.

The video was followed by a performance of the song, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” — also known as the black national anthem — by the Black Celestial Choral Ensemble. During the song, many audience members stood.

 

Catherine Kellman, the chairwoman of the 2016 MLK Celebration committee, gave the welcome speech for the program.

She said the celebration was not just about that night. The celebration started over a week ago when a group of students, staff and community members placed ribbons on the trees of the Quad in memory of King on the official day of his remembrance.

A video from Chancellor Kent Syverud — which was created in case his flight was delayed — was played next. The chancellor eventually did make it to the event.

“This past year has been particularly challenging in our nation,” Syverud said in the video. “Lives have been lost, things have been done and said that have produced unrest in many cities across our country and protest in our streets and on many college campuses.”

Syverud said King would have wanted the SU community to be brave and use the day to educate, remember, forgive and — most importantly — to resolve to do better for the future. He added that SU can and will do this.

After Syverud’s message, the audience bowed their heads for a brief prayer recited by Samuel Clemence, interim dean of Hendricks Chapel.

Spoken word poets and SU seniors Rianne Parker and Mariah Scott then performed the poem, “Say It Loud!” The poem critiqued the disparities between the pledge of allegiance and current issues facing black people in the United States.

 

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which we fall, a broken nation, under God, with the invisible with injustice for all,” was the beginning of the poem.

Black Legacy, an all-male a cappella group, followed with their rendition of the popular song, “Glory,” by John Legend.

Danielle Reed, the first-ever student speaker at the celebration, introduced Hill as the keynote speaker of the event.

Reed began with a quote by King saying, “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

She then asked the audience to close their eyes, take a deep breath, put their politics aside and imagine a country with no guns — where people see each other as equal and work together to help one another. She said to imagine a country with no prisons or jails — where people realize that locking up millions of people does not solve the root of the problem.

Reed said this imagined society is one that civil rights activists, educators and intellectuals like Hill dream of.

Following Reed’s introduction, Hill took the stage and said it was amazing that there were so many people in attendance. He was genuinely moved to be a part of the event, he said.

Hill brought the focus to what King’s message and goal was beyond “sitting together like it’s a GAP commercial.” He interjected anecdotes from King himself as well as tying in current issues including the Black Lives Matter movement; the problems facing Flint, Michigan; and the flawed democratic system.

“We live in a country that doesn’t just grow old but that can also grow up,” Hill said.

Hill challenged the audience to imagine a different world without the constraints of what is now and instead imagine what has not yet happened.

If people truly want to make a difference and act bravely, Hill said they must destroy the concept of the self because true bravery is becoming part of an organization or a movement to make a change that is greater than one person.

Hill received a standing ovation that lasted almost a full minute for his speech. He was then presented with a handcrafted disk created by an SU professor.

The Unsung Hero Awards were then presented to five members of the SU community. Each person was introduced with a personalized video highlighting and explaining what work they do and why they deserved the award.

Kellman ended the celebration by encouraging everyone to attend the event again in the future.

Published on February 1, 2016 at 12:12 am

Contact Stacy: sfern100@syr.edu | @StacyFernandezB