The annual Martin Luther King Observance program on Thursday, 19 January marked the beginning of the Colleges 2006 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Campus-Wide Commemoration Week. In honor of the theme, "Living the Dream in New Millennium," the College invited Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, to shed light on Dr. Kings legacy and discuss civil liberties in the status quo. The NAACP is the oldest organization for minority civil rights in the United States. Dr. Bond drew a large audience of faculty, staff, students and community members that nearly filled the Commonwealth Auditorium to hear his lecture entitled "The Relevancy of Civil Rights: Then and Now."
Vernon Hurte, Assistant Director of Multicultural Affairs at the College, began the program with a discussion of the purpose of MLK Commemoration Week. He described the program as a week-long celebration of the outstanding leadership that Dr. King provided for the civil rights movement. Other events planned for the week included a "Day of Service" on Saturday 21 January and an MLK Celebration Vigil, planned for Thursday 26 January at 7:00 p.m. in the Wren Portico.
When Dr. Bond took to the podium, he began by expressing how happy he was that the College Republicans had regarded him so highly as to distribute a "welcoming flyer." Prior to the start of the program, the College Republicans had distributed alternative programs quoting Dr. Bonds opposition to the Republican party and listing statistics that suggested that African Americans political viewpoints complied with those of President George W. Bush. The College Republicans argued that President Bushs policies supported social changes such as school vouchers and private social security accounts that would guarantee prosperity for all Americans and are supported by the majority of African Americans. Dr. Bond quickly denounced the flyers by arguing that it had been more than forty years since the Republicans had had a decent record on civil rights.
Dr. Bond then opened his lecture with the argument that America is essentially about race. Even forty years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, he observed that racial discrimination still makes the civil rights movement necessary. While he lauded Dr. King for his contributions to the movement, he also acknowledged that the movement was largely one of the people. He expressed nostalgia for the heyday of the civil rights movement when "patriotism was a reason for dissent." However, he modified this nostalgia by describing this also as an age of "white supremacy" when most minorities were "smothering in air-tight cage of poverty."
After recounting some of the key events of the civil rights movement, Dr. Bond turned his focus to the contemporary challenges to the movement. He condemned the Bush administration:
"September 11th has been used as an excuse to break the rules," he accused, discussing how he believed that the Bush administration had increased poverty, stifled science and endangered civil rights by rewriting the Constitution. He also challenged the Republican perspective on affirmative action.
"Affirmative action is under attack because it has been successful," observed Dr. Bond. He defended affirmative action as a necessary measure to right the inequalities that had slighted African Americans for hundreds of years. He argued that forty years of affirmative action did not adequately compensate for hundreds of years of slavery and racial discrimination. He also returned to his discussion of the importance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and how crucial it was that the legislation be renewed, especially when states such as Georgia were attempting to impose poll taxes as a measure to disenfranchise less affluent voters.
"Creating change requires challenging power," concluded Dr. Bond. Not only should Americans remember the legacy of Dr. King, he argued, but they should also continue to fight for civil rights even if the fight seemed to have already been won.
While most audience members regarded Dr. Bond with admiration, some members of the audience were less impressed by his record and comments.
While they acknowledged Dr. Bonds contributions to the civil rights movement, the College Republicans offered an alternative perspective on Dr. Bonds denouncement of the Republican Party. They especially challenged Dr. Bonds negative view of the Bush administration:
"I think Mr. Bonds over-the-top rhetoric speaks for itself. It is unfortunate that Mr. Bond resorted to name-calling and insults, calling Republicans and the Bush administration the Taliban and associating them with the Nazi swastika. It is telling that when an audience member asked Mr. Bond how he would deal with terrorism, he could not come up with an answer. Perhaps he is so busy calling Americans members of the Taliban that he forgets about the real danger of actual terrorists. President Bush continues to work to defend America in a war against the most evil terrorists at home and abroad, while fighting to increase the well being of Americans," commented Ben Locher, Chairman of the College Republicans.
The program concluded with questions from the audience and the singing of one verse of "We Will Overcome."