Convocation Speaker--rough draft

The impact of being present at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famed “I Have a Dream” speech is not one that can be captured in words or summed up in a story. Rather, it’s that kind of astounding moment that impacts a person so greatly it can change their life. One such example is Elizabeth Alexander, who continues to spread the message of those incredible words she heard spoken so many years ago – the message of equality and the force behind it, love.

Admittedly, Alexander was just a baby being pushed in a stroller when she “marched” on Washington D.C. in 1963, but King’s message has stayed with her nonetheless, and on January 18, Alexander came to share that message with the Wittenberg University campus at its annual Martin Luther King Jr. convocation.

“Love is having the strength to know you’re wrong, to know you deserve better,” Alexander firmly declares to the packed audience in Weaver Chapel, speaking as much with her hands as with words.

This love, according to Alexander, is what motivated Martin Luther King Jr. to fight for justice and equality. Because of the love he had for his community and his people and the belief that they deserved better—deserved equality—he fought to make his message a reality.

Alexander reminds the audience, “It is the kind of love that takes work but still eludes us today.” Though we have come far since the day Dr. King stood at the nation’s capital and shared his dreams with the world, the struggle is not over. But we’re well equipped to fight it, as Alexander quotes from one of Dr. King’s speeches, “It is love that gives us a vision of what we move toward.”

That vision became a reality in 2009 when Barack Obama was elected the first African American president, and Alexander, an established poet and chair of the Department of African American Studies at Yale University, was asked to pen and recite a poem for his inauguration.

Alexander ended her speech at the university by reading the poem she wrote for the Obama inauguration, telling the audience that she had not planned on reading the poem again, that she thought it had served its purpose. But its message aptly applies to more than just that one monumental occasion, and lends itself well to the teachings of Dr. King.

The poem, “Praise Song for the Day,” is a praise for the ordinary, the everyday man. But as Alexander reads out, “I need to see what’s on the other side. I know there’s something better down the road,” it becomes clear that it is also a praise for those who have fought to bring us where we are today. A praise for those like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The audience returned the praise with a standing ovation.