News & Events

23rd Annual AUWCL Martin Luther King Day Jr. Celebration Honors Legacy with a Call to Action

The MLK Birthday Commemoration program is a 23-year tradition at WCL that honors the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  This year the King family asked that instead of just celebrating Dr. King's legacy, to focus on the fight to pass voting rights legislation. Therefore, the program focused on educating our community about pending legislation and highlighting the importance of voting rights at this moment.  

Dean Roger Fairfax opened with a welcome to the community.  The program featured remarks by the newly elected Senator-elect Lydia Edwards, WCL '06, who spoke about why public service is important to her and how WCL helped prepare her for this service. After Senator Edwards, Marcia Johnson-Blanco, Co-Director of the Voting Rights Project for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, presented on current voting legislation.  

The program ended with the traditional community reading of a Dr. King speech.  Apropos to the program's theme, we read excerpts from MLK's 1957 "Give Us The Ballot" speech delivered at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington, DC.  

Below is one excerpt from the "Give Us the Ballet" speech:

"Now, I’m not talking about a sentimental, shallow kind of love. I’m not talking about eros, which is a sort of aesthetic, romantic love. I’m not even talking about philia, which is a sort of intimate affection between personal friends. But I’m talking about agape. I’m talking about the love of God in the hearts of men. I’m talking about a type of love which will cause you to love the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does. We’ve got to love."

Read the full speech available here.