UPDATED: Jan. 29, 2018 at 12:55 a.m.

Lights dimmed as dancers took the stage in the Carrier Dome on Sunday night. Close to 1,600 people sat quietly out in the crowd.

The dancers set into their positions, in camouflage pants and hats, as Martin Luther King Jr.’s voice rang out throughout the venue. Their steps fell in line with each beat of King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”

The dance troupe, Young and Talented Hip-Hop Performing Arts Kompany, opened the night of celebration for King’s ideals. But it wasn’t exactly what the crowd was waiting for. They were waiting for Angela Rye.

Rye — a liberal commentator, lawyer and former executive director and general counsel to the Congressional Black Caucus — urged continued activism and denounced some of President Donald Trump’s controversial actions in a speech Sunday night during the keynote address of Syracuse University’s 33rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration.

“Power, the ability to achieve purpose. We want all of us to be able to live on purpose. If we lived on purpose, understanding that we’re truly interdependent, we could move this nation and this world forward,” Rye said. “Power has been used to oppress, so we are afraid of seeking power.”

She spoke about the need for racial equity and acceptance of affinity among all people, and said that interdependence is key to success.

The Carrier Dome celebration is the largest university-sponsored event honoring King in the United States, Chancellor Kent Syverud said in a video address displayed Sunday night. Syverud had a delayed flight and arrived late to the celebration.

In the keynote speech, Rye recounted her childhood. Her mother was an educator and her father was an activist. She said she was taught that activism was required to speak on behalf of those without a voice.

Rye’s father still carries a bullhorn in the trunk of his car and has signs on big whiteboards in her parents’ garage, she said.

“When people used to ask me if I was an activist, I used to say, ‘No, not at all. My dad’s the activist. He’s the agitator and I’m the advocate,’” Rye said in an interview before the celebration.

With a changing political climate, Rye said she now believes it’s necessary to be an activist.

Rye has to get out of bed every day, she said. If it was possible to stay in bed when things weren’t going her way, Rye said in her address, she would have been in bed since November 2016.

“Donald Trump with his damn wall and sh*tholes for countries,” Rye said. “That’s not my words. And, it’s disgusting. It hurts every time I say it, but that’s what he said. The real sh*thole is his mouth.”

Before the event, Rye said King would be disappointed in the leadership of Trump but proud of resistance and activism in the U.S.

“(Trump) isn’t just trying to undo the legacy of Obama, but rather the very legacy of civil rights that Dr. King fought so hard for,” Rye said, accompanied by shouts of agreement from the audience.

Rye also said Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh declining to call Syracuse a sanctuary city was “deeply unfortunate.” Rye said she has progressive views on immigration because she’s from Seattle, a sanctuary city.

Former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, last year, declared Syracuse a sanctuary city. Syracuse residents and local activist groups have urged Walsh to maintain policies that protect undocumented immigrants.

The speaker added that she believes some people are just trying to make a better life for themselves and their children.

“I will fully endorse and support, shout it from the mountaintop, sanctuary cities because people deserve protection,” Rye said in the interview.

She said while people keep asking for justice, she thinks that’s the wrong answer. Justice is rooted in fairness, which Rye said she believes the U.S. is lacking. People need equity before they can have equality, she said.

Rye listened to King’s 1965 SU speech and said she will keep something from that speech as her mantra this year.

“We will win our freedom,” King said in 1965. “And I want us to realize that that is still a possibility.”

Published on January 28, 2018 at 11:37 pm

Contact Catherine: ccleffer@syr.edu | @ccleffert