University Commemorates Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s SLU Speech

10/12/2016

Fifty-two years ago on Oct. 12, 1964, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to a standing-room crowd at what was then Saint Louis University’s West Pine Gymnasium and is today the Center for Global Citizenship. The University had photos of King’s event, but the words he spoke were lost. Recently, archivists at Washington University in St. Louis discovered the audio recording of this speech, and SLU archivists transcribed it.

Yesterday, Oct. 12, 2016, the Office of the President and the Office of Diversity and Community Engagement hosted a reading of King’s 1964 address, recited aloud by various members of the SLU community.

University President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., opened the program by noting the significance of the date – Oct. 12 – and how it was on Oct. 12, 2014, that protesters came to SLU’s campus following the deaths of Michael Brown Jr. in August and Vonderrit Meyers in October.

Pestello pointed out that much of King’s speech about the tumultuous nature of progress in regards to racial equality rings true to this day.

Readers of the speech were:

• University Provost Nancy Brickhouse
• Rodrick Burton, pastor
• D.C. Cooper, IT project coordinator in ITS
• Andrea Gabaldona, senior in the College for Public Health and Social Justice
• Pete Garvin, public safety officer
• Mary Gould, associate professor of communication
• Ken Haller, professor of pediatrics
• Ghazala Hayat, professor of neurology
• Josh Jones, graduate student in the College for Public Health and Social Justice
• Lisa Jones, medical secretary in the Department of Pediatrics
• Bill Kauffman, vice president of General Counsel and former interim University president
• Vernon Mitchell, professor of African American studies at Washington University
• Rev. Sekou, pastor, musician and author
• Lisa Stone, women’s basketball coach
• Brendan Underwood, freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences
• Ted Vitali, C.P., chair, Department of Philosophy
• Cornelius Weaver, project manager in construction services

At the conclusion of the reading, the audience and the readers together gave a standing ovation honoring King’s powerful words about progress, oppression, nonviolence and eternal hope.

Chief diversity officer Jonathan Smith, Ph.D., wrapped up the program with a reflection on King's famous vision included in the address: "The arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

"This speech given 52 years ago in this space resonates so completely with where we are right now, today," Smith said. "There's something about that that is absolutely completely depressing. There's something else about that that lets us know that the work that we have to do, the work that Dr. King called us to do, the work of Saint Louis University, is not short-term work. It is long, eternal, human work. There is no way to ever finish this work. The beauty of the speech that Dr. King gave in this space 52 years ago today is this wonderful balance of the long, long way. It's the way we have come, and it's the way we have to go."