Office of the President
University statements
Jan. 18, 2021
Today we pause to reflect on and celebrate the life and contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
King was among the greatest and most consequential leaders of the 20th century. Fifty-two years after his murder, he serves as an exemplar to a world fractured by bigotry, violence, climate change and stark racial, class and gender disparities.
King was a gentle man who spoke truth to power. In the face of unremitting hostility and violence that ultimately took his life, he challenged the racial caste system in his native South as well as the North’s more subtle but no less toxic racism. An eloquent voice of the grassroots movement that challenged America’s original sin, he was instrumental in persuading a reluctant majority to enact sweeping civil rights legislation that brought the nation closer to its unfulfilled promise of equality.
