Bernice A. King - "I Have a Dream" Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Service (January 15, 1995)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
| (dramatic organ music) | 0:00 | |
| - | Good evening. | 1:51 |
| Congregation | Good evening. | 1:52 |
| - | A call to remembrance. | 1:54 |
| Lest we forget | 1:57 | |
| the Civil Rights Movement, the mission, | 1:59 | |
| lest we forget | 2:04 | |
| the appeal for non-violence, the method, | 2:06 | |
| lest we forget | 2:10 | |
| the perpetual challenge to embrace | 2:13 | |
| freedom, justice, and equality | 2:15 | |
| for the whole of humanity, the message, | 2:18 | |
| and lest we forget | 2:23 | |
| Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the man. | 2:25 | |
| Let us always remember, | 2:30 | |
| lest we forget. | 2:33 | |
| - | And let us pray. | 2:46 |
| Almighty and all-wise God, | 2:57 | |
| our heavenly Father, | 3:00 | |
| we give you thanks for all your gifts | 3:03 | |
| so freely bestowed on us. | 3:06 | |
| We thank you that we're able to gather | 3:10 | |
| with Duke students in this lovely place | 3:14 | |
| on the birthday of Dr. King, your servant. | 3:18 | |
| We thank you for the chance to listen, to remember, | 3:22 | |
| to examine, and to weigh, | 3:27 | |
| to dream, to sing, to pray. | 3:31 | |
| O Father, bless Reverend Bernice King tonight | 3:37 | |
| that she may speak to the weary | 3:41 | |
| a word that will rouse them. | 3:44 | |
| O Lord, open our ears | 3:47 | |
| that we may hear. | 3:50 | |
| Warm the cold heart. | 3:53 | |
| Melt the hard heart | 3:56 | |
| that we may bring nonviolent hearts and nonviolent ways | 4:00 | |
| to the people with whom we deal. | 4:05 | |
| Let thy Holy Spirit stir in us tonight, O Jesus, | 4:10 | |
| to bring us alive to the dream | 4:15 | |
| and to the power of the gospel | 4:18 | |
| that we, when we leave this place, | 4:21 | |
| we may be more free from fear, | 4:25 | |
| more ready to look up and out | 4:29 | |
| and into our sister's eyes and our brother's face | 4:34 | |
| simply with hope. | 4:38 | |
| This, O Father, is our prayer. | 4:44 | |
| For thy name and for thy sake, let us say Amen. | 4:46 | |
| Congregation | Amen. | 4:51 |
| (elegant piano music) | 5:27 | |
| (vibrant piano music) | 6:44 | |
| ♪ Holy ♪ | 7:04 | |
| ♪ Holy ♪ | 7:09 | |
| ♪ Lord God ♪ | 7:14 | |
| ♪ Almighty ♪ | 7:19 | |
| ♪ Holy ♪ | 7:24 | |
| ♪ Holy ♪ | 7:29 | |
| ♪ Lord God ♪ | 7:34 | |
| ♪ Almighty ♪ | 7:39 | |
| ♪ Heaven and earth are ♪ | 7:44 | |
| ♪ Full of thy glory ♪ | 7:49 | |
| ♪ All heaven and earth are ♪ | 7:53 | |
| ♪ Full of thy glory ♪ | 7:59 | |
| ♪ Lord, holy ♪ | 8:03 | |
| ♪ And righteous is your name ♪ | 8:06 | |
| ♪ Omnipotent ♪ | 8:10 | |
| ♪ Glorious ♪ | 8:12 | |
| ♪ Holy is ♪ | 8:15 | |
| ♪ Your name ♪ | 8:18 | |
| ♪ Holy ♪ | 8:23 | |
| ♪ Holy ♪ | 8:28 | |
| ♪ Lord God ♪ | 8:33 | |
| ♪ Almighty ♪ | 8:38 | |
| ♪ Holy ♪ | 8:43 | |
| ♪ Holy ♪ | 8:47 | |
| ♪ Lord God ♪ | 8:52 | |
| ♪ Almighty ♪ | 8:56 | |
| ♪ Heaven and earth are ♪ | 9:01 | |
| ♪ Full of thy glory ♪ | 9:06 | |
| ♪ All heaven and earth are ♪ | 9:10 | |
| ♪ Full of thy glory ♪ | 9:16 | |
| ♪ Lord, holy ♪ | 9:20 | |
| ♪ And righteous is your name ♪ | 9:23 | |
| ♪ Omnipotent ♪ | 9:27 | |
| ♪ Glorious ♪ | 9:29 | |
| ♪ Holy is ♪ | 9:32 | |
| ♪ Your name ♪ | 9:35 | |
| ♪ Your name ♪ | 9:36 | |
| ♪ Your name ♪ | ||
| ♪ Worthy is the ♪ | 9:40 | |
| ♪ Lamb of God ♪ | 9:45 | |
| ♪ Worthy is the ♪ | 9:50 | |
| ♪ Lamb of God ♪ | 9:55 | |
| ♪ You are worthy ♪ | 9:58 | |
| ♪ Of glory ♪ | 10:02 | |
| ♪ And honor ♪ | 10:04 | |
| ♪ And power ♪ | 10:06 | |
| ♪ You are worthy ♪ | 10:08 | |
| ♪ Of glory ♪ | 10:11 | |
| ♪ And honor ♪ | 10:14 | |
| ♪ And power ♪ | 10:16 | |
| ♪ Heaven and earth are ♪ | 10:19 | |
| ♪ Full of thy glory ♪ | 10:23 | |
| ♪ Lord, holy ♪ | 10:27 | |
| ♪ And righteous is your name ♪ | 10:30 | |
| ♪ Omnipotent ♪ | 10:34 | |
| ♪ Glorious ♪ | 10:36 | |
| ♪ Holy is ♪ | 10:39 | |
| ♪ Your name ♪ | 10:42 | |
| ♪ We praise you ♪ | ||
| ♪ We praise you ♪ | 10:44 | |
| ♪ We praise you ♪ | 10:47 | |
| ♪ We praise you ♪ | 10:49 | |
| ♪ Lord, we praise you ♪ | 10:50 | |
| ♪ Lord, we praise you ♪ | 10:53 | |
| ♪ Lord, we praise you ♪ | 10:55 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 10:58 | |
| (vibrant piano music) | 11:07 | |
| (pensive piano music) | 13:14 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 13:24 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 13:30 | |
| ♪ Master, hear your servant's prayer ♪ | 13:35 | |
| ♪ Once again ♪ | 13:40 | |
| (conductor claps) | 13:44 | |
| ♪ I'll be honest ♪ | 13:45 | |
| ♪ I'll be fair ♪ | 13:48 | |
| ♪ Yes, I'll own you anywhere ♪ | 13:50 | |
| ♪ This is your servant's prayer ♪ | 13:55 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 13:59 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 14:05 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 14:10 | |
| ♪ Master, hear your servant's prayer ♪ | 14:14 | |
| ♪ Once again ♪ | 14:19 | |
| (conductor claps) | 14:23 | |
| ♪ I'll be honest ♪ | 14:24 | |
| ♪ I'll be fair ♪ | 14:26 | |
| ♪ Yes, I'll own you anywhere ♪ | 14:28 | |
| ♪ This is your servant's prayer ♪ | 14:33 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 14:38 | |
| ♪ Oooooooh ♪ | 14:43 | |
| ♪ Oooooooh ♪ | 14:48 | |
| ♪ Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ♪ | 14:52 | |
| ♪ Oooooooh ♪ | 14:57 | |
| (conductor claps) | 15:01 | |
| ♪ Ahhhhh ♪ | 15:02 | |
| ♪ Ahhhhh ♪ | 15:04 | |
| ♪ Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ♪ | 15:06 | |
| ♪ Oooooooh ♪ | 15:10 | |
| ♪ Oooh ♪ | 15:15 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 15:20 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 15:25 | |
| ♪ Master, hear your servant's prayer ♪ | 15:29 | |
| ♪ Once again ♪ | 15:34 | |
| (conductor claps) | 15:38 | |
| ♪ I'll be honest ♪ | 15:39 | |
| ♪ I'll be fair ♪ | 15:41 | |
| ♪ Yes, I'll own you anywhere ♪ | 15:43 | |
| ♪ This is your ♪ | 15:47 | |
| ♪ Servant's prayer ♪ | 15:53 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 15:59 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 16:12 | |
| - | Good evening. | 17:20 |
| Congregation | Good evening. | 17:21 |
| - | It has been exactly one year since I stood before you | 17:23 |
| to provide thoughts on the purpose of this | 17:26 | |
| and similar celebrations which are being held this weekend | 17:28 | |
| to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King | 17:32 | |
| and to pause to reflect on his legacy to us. | 17:35 | |
| When Michael called me | 17:39 | |
| to ask me to provide my thoughts last year, | 17:40 | |
| I said yes. | 17:44 | |
| I can't say no to Michael, | 17:46 | |
| but inwardly I anguished last year | 17:48 | |
| at the enormity of this task. | 17:51 | |
| Last year, you see, was a moment | 17:54 | |
| of incredible catharsis for me | 17:56 | |
| as I labored to share thoughts | 17:58 | |
| about the meaning of the King celebrations | 18:00 | |
| that had been buried, ignored, and otherwise unavailable | 18:03 | |
| for functional use in my day-to-day life. | 18:06 | |
| I wasn't too sure then | 18:10 | |
| if I had accomplished what Michael asked me when I finished. | 18:11 | |
| I was overwhelmed by the power of that moment | 18:15 | |
| and the closeness that I felt | 18:18 | |
| with everyone in the audience as I spoke. | 18:20 | |
| And when it was over, I breathed a sigh of relief | 18:23 | |
| that I had paid my debt to Michael, Dr. King, Duke, | 18:27 | |
| my sons, and everyone else. | 18:31 | |
| That was until the phone rang and there was Michael again. | 18:33 | |
| My task, you see, is to distill in a few words | 18:38 | |
| the purpose of this | 18:41 | |
| and similar celebrations or commemorations | 18:42 | |
| to make Dr. King's lifework, his dream, | 18:46 | |
| relevant to the times that we face now in 1995. | 18:49 | |
| Many of those who are assembled here tonight | 18:54 | |
| were not even born | 18:56 | |
| when Dr. King delivered his Dream speech | 18:58 | |
| at the Lincoln Memorial | 19:00 | |
| and have had to depend | 19:02 | |
| on their parental and family recollections | 19:04 | |
| if they are lucky | 19:07 | |
| and the media if they are unlucky | 19:08 | |
| to tell them who this important man was | 19:11 | |
| at a critical time | 19:14 | |
| in the history of civil rights in our country. | 19:15 | |
| If they are lucky, they were also told | 19:19 | |
| of the other heroes and heroines, | 19:21 | |
| of Fannie Lou Hamer, of A. Philip Randolph, | 19:23 | |
| of Medgar Evers, of Thurgood Marshall, | 19:27 | |
| and of Rosa Parks, to name only a few. | 19:30 | |
| For, you see, our children and our youngest adults, | 19:34 | |
| those born after 1969, | 19:37 | |
| live in a different time, | 19:40 | |
| and perhaps Martin's dream is not as relevant, as primal, | 19:41 | |
| as urgent as it was for those of us who lived | 19:46 | |
| the day-to-day horrors of racism. | 19:49 | |
| Many of you are the children | 19:53 | |
| of first and second-generation middle-class families | 19:55 | |
| who have reaped the benefits of Martin Luther King's labor. | 19:58 | |
| Many of our children labor under the false assumption | 20:02 | |
| that integration has worked, | 20:05 | |
| that we have achieved that community of people | 20:07 | |
| who are judged by the content of their character | 20:10 | |
| rather than the color of their skin, | 20:13 | |
| that racism is indeed dead. | 20:15 | |
| Unfortunately, for far too few of us, | 20:18 | |
| the ascent into realms | 20:21 | |
| previously declared off limits to our parents | 20:23 | |
| has served to sharpen our ability to recognize | 20:26 | |
| the multitude of forms that institutional racism takes. | 20:30 | |
| Too few of us remember that our ability to live and work, | 20:34 | |
| things that Dr. King lived and died for, | 20:38 | |
| have not exonerated us of the debt to our communities | 20:43 | |
| that we owe for that privilege. | 20:46 | |
| More times than not, we have not learned | 20:49 | |
| to recognize the same demon of racism today, | 20:51 | |
| as it is cloaked in a different guise | 20:55 | |
| and therefore are unsuspecting, particularly vulnerable, | 20:57 | |
| and more importantly, unprepared to deal with it | 21:01 | |
| and to survive. | 21:04 | |
| So ironically, I've come tonight to try to make those ties | 21:06 | |
| that link our past, Dr. King and his dream, | 21:09 | |
| to us who remain and to those who are coming behind us | 21:12 | |
| so that we can be about Dr. King's unfinished business. | 21:16 | |
| I thought and thought about how to do this, | 21:20 | |
| how to make Dr. King's holiday | 21:22 | |
| relevant to the world in which we live, | 21:24 | |
| how to find one unifying thing | 21:27 | |
| that could dramatically drive home | 21:29 | |
| the urgency to make this tie to our past. | 21:31 | |
| One issue that's so uniquely and so frighteningly close | 21:34 | |
| strikes the necessary terror to get everybody's attention. | 21:38 | |
| Those of you who know me and listened to me last year | 21:42 | |
| and those who know me very well | 21:46 | |
| know that when I seem to be stumped, | 21:48 | |
| I can always depend on my children, | 21:49 | |
| whose innocent voices bring me front and center, | 21:52 | |
| and tonight is no different. | 21:55 | |
| As I read and thought | 21:57 | |
| and worried about what to say to you tonight, | 21:58 | |
| it was through the voices of my two sons | 22:00 | |
| that it all came together. | 22:03 | |
| Because it is the threat | 22:05 | |
| that our world poses to their potential | 22:07 | |
| that links Dr. King and his dream | 22:10 | |
| squarely to tonight's commemoration. | 22:12 | |
| So it is my children in the voice of their mother | 22:15 | |
| that you will hear tonight, | 22:17 | |
| not the pediatrician Dr. Armstrong. | 22:19 | |
| Because it is to them and the countless numbers | 22:21 | |
| of African American children especially | 22:24 | |
| that the voice of Dr. King and his legacy | 22:27 | |
| speak most poignantly. | 22:29 | |
| It is about the unfinished business of Dr. King's dreams. | 22:31 | |
| His vision of peace and attainment of equal rights for all | 22:35 | |
| seem further away now than ever, | 22:39 | |
| slipping away in the violence | 22:41 | |
| that is consuming our children, | 22:43 | |
| that has made this a season of blood and ashes. | 22:45 | |
| So much of Dr. King's life and work was devoted | 22:49 | |
| to deliver to our children | 22:52 | |
| the full benefit of those inalienable rights | 22:55 | |
| that were promised by the Constitution | 22:58 | |
| and the Bill of Rights | 23:00 | |
| so that their futures would be brighter than ours. | 23:01 | |
| The lives and legacy of African Americans | 23:05 | |
| have been progressive and valuable beyond measure | 23:08 | |
| simply because each generation has fashioned | 23:12 | |
| a way to resist the pernicious hold of racism in our lives. | 23:16 | |
| Each generation of Black children | 23:21 | |
| have exceeded their parents. | 23:23 | |
| My son's generation of Black children | 23:25 | |
| may be the first that may be destroyed | 23:28 | |
| before it can marshal its forces | 23:31 | |
| against the enemy facing them. | 23:33 | |
| The battle this time is bloodier. | 23:35 | |
| The lines are more deeply drawn. | 23:37 | |
| As the mother of Black sons, | 23:40 | |
| I am raising my children with trembling hands | 23:41 | |
| that clutch and lead, | 23:44 | |
| and tonight I speak to you about our children | 23:46 | |
| because there is no subject more necessary to confront, | 23:48 | |
| more imperative to imagine, | 23:51 | |
| more tied to the unfinished business of Dr. King's dream | 23:53 | |
| than the fate of our sons and daughters. | 23:57 | |
| Death, the specter of death, | 24:01 | |
| real and unexpected and cruel, fills our existence | 24:03 | |
| more than any time in our past as a nation. | 24:06 | |
| Death like some medieval plague is now with us, | 24:09 | |
| and if we love our sons and daughters and ourselves, | 24:13 | |
| we must speak its name, | 24:16 | |
| violence in all forms. | 24:18 | |
| Step up to it, challenge it, | 24:20 | |
| fight it collectively and one on one. | 24:22 | |
| It is the same violence that took Dr. King from us, | 24:25 | |
| the same forces that have come together to fuel a climate | 24:28 | |
| that is creating a new kind of Middle Passage | 24:32 | |
| for us as African Americans | 24:35 | |
| and people of conscience to navigate through. | 24:37 | |
| What will we look like? | 24:40 | |
| How will we sound once we are spewed forth | 24:42 | |
| from this terrible hold of this ship? | 24:45 | |
| We bury and mourn the children who are dead. | 24:48 | |
| What will we do to cherish and save the ones who live? | 24:51 | |
| Homicide is the leading cause of death | 24:56 | |
| among Black females and males, | 24:58 | |
| 15 to 34 years of age. | 25:02 | |
| The probability of being a murder victim | 25:05 | |
| is less than 1 in 20 for an African American male | 25:07 | |
| compared to 1 in 200 for a white male. | 25:10 | |
| Interpersonal violence is a public health problem, | 25:14 | |
| and the impact of the more than 20,000 people who die | 25:17 | |
| and the 2.2 million people | 25:22 | |
| who suffer non-fatal injuries from interpersonal violence | 25:24 | |
| is staggering and bankrupting an almost, | 25:27 | |
| an already tenuous healthcare system. | 25:30 | |
| We could debate whether it is poverty or race | 25:34 | |
| that so intensifies patterns of morbidity and mortality, | 25:37 | |
| that so darkens the picture for violence, | 25:41 | |
| but at this point in time, suffice it to say | 25:43 | |
| that they do overlap and are real issues. | 25:46 | |
| We have seen the virtual disintegration | 25:50 | |
| of the very institutions | 25:52 | |
| that have held us together as a society, | 25:53 | |
| and for those of us who are Black, as a people. | 25:56 | |
| We see teenage pregnancy at an alarming rate | 25:59 | |
| and refuse to intervene for so-called moral grounds | 26:02 | |
| or because we don't want to step on anyone's rights, | 26:06 | |
| but out of the same mouths, we cut off funding | 26:09 | |
| that will give the children who are born | 26:12 | |
| a smidgen of a chance to survive. | 26:14 | |
| We see our nation beginning to think | 26:16 | |
| that affirmative action programs are unnecessary, | 26:18 | |
| that somehow the centuries | 26:21 | |
| of injustice, oppression, and inhumanity | 26:22 | |
| which have prevented the full realization | 26:25 | |
| of enormous potential of Black people | 26:27 | |
| have been wiped out by a few goody-goody gestures | 26:31 | |
| from a small group of people who actually run the country. | 26:33 | |
| We see a nation where the unemployment rates of minorities | 26:37 | |
| is still triple that of whites, | 26:40 | |
| and we ignore the fact | 26:42 | |
| that the numbers of Blacks going on to college | 26:43 | |
| is still significantly less than 10 to 15 years ago. | 26:46 | |
| And under the direction of the new Republican leadership, | 26:50 | |
| we are about to see rollbacks | 26:53 | |
| that will make our parents and grandparents think | 26:55 | |
| that we are back in the pre-Civil Rights Era. | 26:58 | |
| We see race-related health issues spiraling in our community | 27:01 | |
| as rates of cancer, heart disease, | 27:05 | |
| and AIDS threaten to wipe us out. | 27:07 | |
| In response to a distant tyrant, | 27:11 | |
| we sent hundreds of thousands | 27:14 | |
| of Americans' mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters | 27:15 | |
| to the Persian Gulf | 27:19 | |
| at a cost of $500 million a day | 27:20 | |
| to protect, as former Secretary of State Jim Baker put it, | 27:24 | |
| our lifestyle and standard of living | 27:27 | |
| and the rights of the Kuwaiti people, | 27:30 | |
| while we fail to engage the enemies of hunger, | 27:32 | |
| homelessness, and wanton violence | 27:35 | |
| on our own home soil. | 27:37 | |
| The 1992 president's budget proposed only $100 million | 27:40 | |
| to increase Head Start for one year | 27:45 | |
| and $500 million each day for Desert Storm. | 27:47 | |
| It is a morally lost nation | 27:52 | |
| that is unable and unwilling to disarm our children | 27:54 | |
| and those who kill our children in their school buses, | 27:57 | |
| strollers, yards, kitchens, and playgrounds. | 28:00 | |
| Death stalks America's playgrounds and streets | 28:04 | |
| without a declaration of war | 28:07 | |
| or even a sustained declaration of concern | 28:09 | |
| by our president, governor, state and local officials, | 28:12 | |
| and especially by our new Republican Congress, | 28:16 | |
| who saw fit to glorify | 28:19 | |
| the most vilified symbols of children's violence, | 28:20 | |
| the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," as their mascot | 28:23 | |
| for their victory celebrations recently. | 28:26 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 28:29 | |
| If these daily transgressions | 28:33 | |
| against safety, sanity, and wellbeing | 28:35 | |
| that disproportionately plague | 28:37 | |
| the African American community | 28:39 | |
| were visited against us by members of any other country, | 28:41 | |
| these acts would be labeled terrorism, | 28:45 | |
| and if the children being killed in the cities | 28:48 | |
| were overwhelmingly white, | 28:50 | |
| there would be a massive national response | 28:52 | |
| to stop the violence. | 28:55 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 28:56 | |
| But do the powers | 29:02 | |
| that really care about kids, white or Black, really care, | 29:03 | |
| or will it have to await the inclusion | 29:07 | |
| of children of congresspersons, industrialists | 29:09 | |
| and business magnates in these horrid statistics | 29:12 | |
| before anything else is done? | 29:16 | |
| Although trying to best, | 29:18 | |
| to erect itself an actual and psychological barrier | 29:21 | |
| between themselves and those people, aka Blacks, | 29:26 | |
| the refusal of the white community | 29:30 | |
| to join us in retaking our children's future ensures | 29:32 | |
| that corpses of their own young | 29:36 | |
| will be added to the numbers of ours. | 29:38 | |
| This country has yet to decide | 29:40 | |
| to guarantee to all its citizens | 29:42 | |
| and especially to its children | 29:45 | |
| the health, education, safety, and economic viability | 29:47 | |
| that Dr. King so passionately fought for | 29:51 | |
| and gave his life for. | 29:54 | |
| All children in America possess an equal opportunity | 29:57 | |
| to be poorly cared for, indifferently nurtured, | 30:00 | |
| exploited, neglected, and abused. | 30:03 | |
| So the horrid bloody drama unfolding on the streets, | 30:05 | |
| especially in the Black community, | 30:10 | |
| is no more than the unashamed echo | 30:12 | |
| of the kind of lethal societal indifference | 30:15 | |
| that Dr. King helped us stay away from. | 30:19 | |
| We have all been co-participants in this descent. | 30:22 | |
| We have all forgotten the price | 30:26 | |
| that Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, | 30:27 | |
| and Fannie Lou Hamer and Rosa Parks | 30:30 | |
| and countless thousands of unnamed others | 30:32 | |
| have paid for our freedom, | 30:35 | |
| and we dishonor their memory | 30:37 | |
| by our individual and collective apathy. | 30:38 | |
| So why are we here? | 30:41 | |
| We are not here merely to celebrate the fact | 30:43 | |
| that we were fortunate heirs | 30:45 | |
| of the legacies of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. | 30:47 | |
| Their lifework require a bigger paycheck from us. | 30:51 | |
| They would want us to celebrate their lives | 30:55 | |
| by not just resolving to face up to our collective guilt | 30:57 | |
| for either active or passive roles | 31:01 | |
| in allowing our country to disintegrate | 31:04 | |
| to its present state. | 31:06 | |
| Each year I've been impressed | 31:08 | |
| that the celebrations honoring Dr. King | 31:10 | |
| seem to get bigger and better and more numerous. | 31:12 | |
| We remember the great civil rights struggles | 31:15 | |
| of the '50s and '60s as if they are history, | 31:17 | |
| relegated to the past, | 31:21 | |
| to be read about, depending on which curriculum you get, | 31:22 | |
| like the Crusades | 31:26 | |
| and as if there's nothing further for us to do. | 31:28 | |
| There was a transcendent moment in our history | 31:32 | |
| when we faced bulldogs, water cannons, jail cells, | 31:34 | |
| fire bombs, assassinations, and sacrifice | 31:38 | |
| so that our children could become full citizens. | 31:42 | |
| We have faced guns before. | 31:45 | |
| In the past they were aimed at us | 31:47 | |
| by mobs cloaked in white sheets. | 31:49 | |
| Now they are held on us by our own children. | 31:51 | |
| Do we fear our children more than we fear racists? | 31:54 | |
| Did we want to integrate more | 31:57 | |
| than we want to save ourselves from extinction? | 31:59 | |
| I think not. | 32:01 | |
| The issues that Dr. King fought for, gave his life for, | 32:03 | |
| that even the struggle | 32:07 | |
| to get this holiday recognized represent | 32:08 | |
| are far from settled, | 32:11 | |
| although there are a few who would have you believe | 32:13 | |
| that a few laws and mere concessions | 32:15 | |
| have solved all our problems. | 32:18 | |
| We are here, good people, not to dress up, | 32:20 | |
| pat ourselves on the back, | 32:23 | |
| breathe a sigh of relief that we have gotten this far | 32:24 | |
| and go home to business as usual. | 32:27 | |
| We are here or should be here to rededicate ourselves | 32:29 | |
| to perhaps an even more sacred trust, | 32:33 | |
| to reclaim ourselves, to reclaim our community, | 32:36 | |
| to reclaim our children, and to reclaim our destiny. | 32:40 | |
| We know what is required, | 32:44 | |
| a moral and ethical transformation | 32:45 | |
| that will make us bold and compassionate, | 32:48 | |
| intuitive and strategic, | 32:51 | |
| demanding yet forgiving. | 32:53 | |
| We created and became our best selves | 32:56 | |
| in the so-called struggle for freedom. | 32:59 | |
| We knew how to win moral and material skirmishes | 33:01 | |
| under Dr. King's tutelage, | 33:05 | |
| how to create an army of domestic workers, | 33:07 | |
| college students, janitors, | 33:09 | |
| college professors, and preachers. | 33:11 | |
| We knew how to march and shame this nation. | 33:14 | |
| Our failure to push ourselves | 33:17 | |
| out of the comfortable insulation | 33:19 | |
| of the conventional, safe, private havens | 33:21 | |
| of our comfortable lives shames us now. | 33:25 | |
| The present challenge descends directly | 33:28 | |
| from the unfinished business | 33:31 | |
| that Black and white America left behind | 33:33 | |
| with Dr. King's death. | 33:35 | |
| Paralyzed by debate, indifferent, factionalized, | 33:37 | |
| unable to caucus unless the cameras wait outside, | 33:41 | |
| we watch as our sons and daughters embrace destruction | 33:45 | |
| because we will not place ourselves | 33:48 | |
| between them and this madness. | 33:51 | |
| We don't love them enough to insist, to demand, | 33:53 | |
| to require, to provide that they live. | 33:57 | |
| The legacies that Dr. King and our parents and teachers left | 34:01 | |
| to our generation of Black children | 34:06 | |
| were priceless, not material. | 34:08 | |
| A living faith reflected in daily service, | 34:10 | |
| the discipline of hard work and stick-to-it-ness, | 34:13 | |
| and a capacity to struggle in the face of adversity. | 34:16 | |
| Giving up and burnout were not in our vocabulary. | 34:20 | |
| You got up every morning, you did what you had to do, | 34:23 | |
| and you got up every time you fell down, | 34:25 | |
| and you tried as many times as you had | 34:27 | |
| to get it done the right way. | 34:29 | |
| I am privileged to say | 34:33 | |
| that those people taught me. | 34:36 | |
| I still hope that I will be half as good | 34:39 | |
| as those elders in my community, | 34:42 | |
| and I thank God every day | 34:44 | |
| that I was the recipient of that legacy. | 34:46 | |
| The equation for all of this is quite simple, you see. | 34:50 | |
| It consists of education, | 34:54 | |
| ensuring that our children are educated and prepared | 34:56 | |
| to step into positions of leadership for the 21st century. | 34:59 | |
| We must remember that education is their birthright, | 35:03 | |
| and we must be vigilant | 35:06 | |
| that discrimination is erased from our classrooms, | 35:08 | |
| faculties, and administrations. | 35:11 | |
| Ethical values. | 35:14 | |
| We must find other ways than the media | 35:16 | |
| or control the media to better distill and transmit | 35:19 | |
| respect for human rights and the value of life. | 35:22 | |
| We must remember that especially as Blacks, | 35:26 | |
| the church has been our lifeblood. | 35:29 | |
| We must know that we are people of God | 35:31 | |
| and that as Christians when we stand against evil | 35:33 | |
| in any time and place, | 35:36 | |
| we are doing God's work. | 35:38 | |
| We must use | 35:41 | |
| the almost $400 billion gross national product | 35:43 | |
| of the Black community as skillfully as our ancestors | 35:47 | |
| and reinvest in our own community. | 35:50 | |
| We must empower our own community. | 35:53 | |
| Better health. | 35:56 | |
| We must work tirelessly | 35:57 | |
| to build the health and wellness of our communities. | 35:59 | |
| Our healthcare needs parallel those | 36:02 | |
| of undeveloped countries. | 36:05 | |
| We must confront the fact | 36:07 | |
| that cancer, heart disease, hypertension, | 36:09 | |
| alcoholism, drug addiction, AIDS, and violence | 36:12 | |
| is having a tremendous impact on our future. | 36:16 | |
| Corporate responsibility. | 36:20 | |
| We must face the fact that we are responsible | 36:22 | |
| for those who come behind us, | 36:25 | |
| that we must invest in them in more ways than money, | 36:27 | |
| and we must remember our sacred covenant | 36:30 | |
| to bring somebody with us. | 36:33 | |
| We must rededicate ourselves | 36:35 | |
| to work tirelessly to help end the violence | 36:38 | |
| which is destroying our communities. | 36:41 | |
| We say enough of the violence which is killing our children | 36:43 | |
| and destroying a generation of young Black men. | 36:46 | |
| We must close ranks again to find ways | 36:50 | |
| to help those institutions in our community, | 36:52 | |
| church, civic groups, | 36:55 | |
| joint partnerships between private and public sector, | 36:57 | |
| to take back our children and steal them from death's grasp | 37:01 | |
| and give them life and hope. | 37:04 | |
| Last year, it was through my son's favorite bedtime story, | 37:08 | |
| "Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt," | 37:12 | |
| that the true meaning of this celebration | 37:14 | |
| became immediately obvious. | 37:15 | |
| As I sat to write these thoughts, | 37:17 | |
| he read "Sweet Clara" to me | 37:19 | |
| and reminded me to tell you to be like Clara. | 37:22 | |
| Clara, a young slave | 37:26 | |
| who was separated from her mother at auction, | 37:28 | |
| is taught to be a seamstress by her Aunt Rachel, | 37:30 | |
| with whom she is sent to a faraway plantation. | 37:33 | |
| She dreams of freedom and of being reunited with her family. | 37:36 | |
| Upon moving from the field to the Big House, | 37:40 | |
| she begins to hear of the North Star, | 37:43 | |
| the Underground Railroad, and Canada from other slaves. | 37:45 | |
| But she nor they have a map, | 37:49 | |
| and without a map to the Ohio River and northward, | 37:51 | |
| freedom is only a dream. | 37:53 | |
| In a flash of inspiration, | 37:55 | |
| she sees how to use the scraps of leftover cloth | 37:57 | |
| to sew a map of the land, a freedom quilt, | 38:01 | |
| which she sews as she hears landmarks talked about | 38:05 | |
| by the visitors to her master's plantation | 38:08 | |
| and from slaves who talked about the land | 38:11 | |
| without knowing what Clara was really doing. | 38:13 | |
| When the quilt was finished, | 38:17 | |
| she marked it with a bright star at the top | 38:18 | |
| and with courage and resourcefulness | 38:21 | |
| made her own way back to her mother | 38:24 | |
| and subsequently all went to freedom. | 38:26 | |
| Her last act before escaping the plantation | 38:30 | |
| was to leave her quilt to cover her ailing aunt, | 38:33 | |
| who promised to share the quilt with those who would follow. | 38:35 | |
| Clara knew that her aunt had kept her sacred trust | 38:39 | |
| as many slaves told her of the quilt | 38:43 | |
| and how they passed to freedom by its direction. | 38:46 | |
| As he finished reading the story to me, | 38:50 | |
| a smile peeled across my face through the tears | 38:52 | |
| because I had been reassured that he, even at his young age, | 38:56 | |
| understood the unfinished business passed now to him. | 39:00 | |
| He had reminded me that it is our children | 39:04 | |
| who are God's presents, | 39:07 | |
| his promise and his hope for humankind. | 39:08 | |
| And it is for Clara, Harriet, | 39:12 | |
| Medgar, Fannie, Martin, | 39:15 | |
| and all those young Martins and Rosas | 39:17 | |
| that this celebration tonight is meant. | 39:20 | |
| Thank you. | 39:23 | |
| (congregation applauding) | ||
| - | It's always difficult to follow Brenda Armstrong, | 39:47 |
| but it's an honor as well. | 39:52 | |
| It's especially an honor for me tonight | 39:55 | |
| to bring you greetings from Duke University Medical Center | 39:57 | |
| to this service | 40:02 | |
| in celebration of the birthdate of Dr. Martin Luther King. | 40:04 | |
| We celebrate Dr. King's victories | 40:08 | |
| in the Civil Rights Movement, | 40:11 | |
| we mourn his loss, | 40:13 | |
| and we look to a future, which Brenda expressed so well, | 40:15 | |
| leaves much work to be done. | 40:19 | |
| The medical center this year | 40:23 | |
| has mourned the loss of our own. | 40:25 | |
| We've mourned the loss | 40:28 | |
| of one of our most valued faculty members, | 40:29 | |
| Dr. George Phillips. | 40:32 | |
| An African American who grew up in rural Alabama | 40:35 | |
| in abject poverty, | 40:39 | |
| Dr. Phillips achieved national recognition | 40:41 | |
| for his scientific work at Duke | 40:44 | |
| in trying to understand sickle cell anemia. | 40:48 | |
| He received greater praise, however, | 40:52 | |
| for his compassionate care of African Americans | 40:54 | |
| who suffered the pain of sickle cell disease. | 40:58 | |
| So as with Dr. King, this year in the medical center | 41:02 | |
| is a time to celebrate a life, | 41:07 | |
| to mourn a loss, | 41:10 | |
| but it's also, just on the occasion of Dr. King's birthdate, | 41:14 | |
| a time to look to a future with much work to be done. | 41:19 | |
| Sickle cell disease reflects | 41:24 | |
| our successes and our failures in providing healthcare | 41:26 | |
| to African Americans in this country. | 41:30 | |
| Sickle cell anemia is found in as many as 4% of Africans | 41:33 | |
| and 1% of African Americans. | 41:39 | |
| In other words, it's one of the most frequent diseases | 41:42 | |
| we have in our society. | 41:45 | |
| Sickle cell disease has been traced back to at least 1670, | 41:47 | |
| where it was noted to be present | 41:52 | |
| in the Krobo tribe in Ghana. | 41:53 | |
| So it's one of the longest known diseases | 41:56 | |
| by western physicians, | 41:59 | |
| but it took nearly 300 years, | 42:02 | |
| up until 1939 in Memphis, Tennessee, of interest, | 42:05 | |
| that Dr. L. W. Diggs discovered the mechanism | 42:10 | |
| by which the pain of this disease | 42:14 | |
| and the occlusion of the blood vessels | 42:18 | |
| caused by the disease occur. | 42:19 | |
| And that is the irreversible changes | 42:22 | |
| in the shape of the red blood cell | 42:25 | |
| from a sphere to a sickle, | 42:29 | |
| which in turn would clog up blood vessels. | 42:32 | |
| Linus Pauling among other persons | 42:35 | |
| helped us to discover that the disease was caused | 42:39 | |
| by an abnormality in a single gene. | 42:42 | |
| You might say we've learned a lot | 42:47 | |
| in just a few years about sickle cell disease. | 42:50 | |
| Yet this disease | 42:55 | |
| and the discoveries we've made about it | 42:58 | |
| leaves very much work to be done. | 43:00 | |
| To be quite honest, we remain relatively ineffective | 43:04 | |
| in providing adequate care | 43:09 | |
| to persons suffering from sickle cell disease. | 43:11 | |
| This is due both to a lack of knowledge | 43:15 | |
| regarding the best means of therapy | 43:19 | |
| and to a failure in our healthcare system | 43:22 | |
| that is at present inadequate | 43:26 | |
| in its delivery of comprehensive and compassionate care | 43:30 | |
| to persons suffering from this disease. | 43:34 | |
| Therefore, we at Duke Medical Center | 43:37 | |
| can share in the spirit of this occasion, | 43:39 | |
| especially in 1995. | 43:42 | |
| We celebrate the lives of Dr. King and Dr. Phillips, | 43:46 | |
| we mourn their loss, | 43:51 | |
| and we look to a future | 43:54 | |
| where there's much left to be done. | 43:56 | |
| Our successes and our failures | 44:00 | |
| in caring for patients with sickle cell disease | 44:03 | |
| are ever-present reminders | 44:08 | |
| that the past is still with us | 44:13 | |
| and only a prologue for the future. | 44:16 | |
| Thank you. | 44:19 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 44:20 | |
| - | Welcome. | 44:32 |
| Welcome to the Chapel at Duke University | 44:34 | |
| in the city of Durham. | 44:38 | |
| This is wonderful. | 44:41 | |
| Every seat is filled. | 44:43 | |
| It fills my heart because I know | 44:46 | |
| that all of you will witness | 44:48 | |
| a beautiful and thoughtful service | 44:52 | |
| to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. | 44:55 | |
| I'm pleased to bring you greetings | 44:59 | |
| from the Durham City Council | 45:01 | |
| as we gather in remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr. | 45:04 | |
| Dr. King's life was dedicated | 45:09 | |
| to the principles of racial equality, | 45:13 | |
| mutual understanding, | 45:16 | |
| and nonviolent social change. | 45:18 | |
| While he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize | 45:22 | |
| at the early age of 35 for his outstanding work, | 45:25 | |
| he also paid for espousing | 45:30 | |
| these important principles | 45:33 | |
| by meeting with a violent death | 45:36 | |
| soon thereafter. | 45:39 | |
| Dr. King would surely be saddened | 45:43 | |
| were he alive in the violent society we live in today. | 45:48 | |
| We all share that sense of sadness. | 45:54 | |
| In his memory, | 45:59 | |
| let us carefully reflect | 46:01 | |
| on how we can prevent violence | 46:03 | |
| and how we can work together | 46:07 | |
| to promote greater peace and greater harmony | 46:11 | |
| with our fellow citizens. | 46:15 | |
| This event honoring the memory of Dr. King | 46:19 | |
| provides an opportunity | 46:24 | |
| for renewed dedication | 46:26 | |
| to our joint efforts to realize his dream. | 46:29 | |
| That dream, after all, | 46:34 | |
| was for a world | 46:38 | |
| in which we can all live our lives in peace, | 46:39 | |
| in which we can all enjoy | 46:45 | |
| life's blessings. | 46:48 | |
| We in the city government | 46:51 | |
| want to be an active part | 46:54 | |
| of the joint effort to realize that dream, | 46:57 | |
| and we will continue to seek ways | 47:02 | |
| to move ahead. | 47:05 | |
| I am sure that together, | 47:07 | |
| we really can make a difference. | 47:10 | |
| Let us all try. | 47:15 | |
| Thank you. | 47:17 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 47:18 | |
| - | Our Scripture reading this evening will come from | 47:30 |
| the book of Genesis, 37th chapter, | 47:34 | |
| beginning with verse 15 and ending with verse 18. | 47:37 | |
| "And a certain man found him, | 47:43 | |
| and behold, he was wandering in the field. | 47:46 | |
| And the man asked him, saying, 'What seekest thou?' | 47:49 | |
| And he said, 'I seek my brethren. | 47:53 | |
| Tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.' | 47:56 | |
| And the man said, 'They are departed hence; | 48:01 | |
| for I heard them say, "Let us go to Dothan."' | 48:04 | |
| And Joseph went after his brethren and found them in Dothan. | 48:07 | |
| And when they saw him afar off, | 48:12 | |
| even before he came near unto them, | 48:15 | |
| they conspired against him to slay him. | 48:18 | |
| And they said one to another, | 48:21 | |
| 'Behold, this dreamer cometh.'" | 48:24 | |
| May the Lord add a blessing to the reading | 48:27 | |
| and the hearing of his Holy Word. | 48:29 | |
| Amen. | 48:31 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 48:32 | |
| (solemn piano music) | 49:03 | |
| (spirited piano music) | 49:57 | |
| (choir clapping) | 50:12 | |
| ♪ If you confess the Lord, call him up ♪ | 50:20 | |
| ♪ If you confess the Lord, call him up ♪ | 50:25 | |
| ♪ If you confess the Lord, call him up ♪ | 50:31 | |
| ♪ If you confess the Lord, call him up ♪ | 50:37 | |
| ♪ If you believe in the Father, the Son ♪ | 50:42 | |
| ♪ And the Holy Ghost ♪ | 50:44 | |
| ♪ Call him up ♪ | 50:47 | |
| ♪ And tell him what you want ♪ | 50:49 | |
| ♪ If you confess the Lord, call him up ♪ | 50:54 | |
| ♪ If you confess the Lord, call him up ♪ | 51:00 | |
| ♪ If you confess the Lord, call him up ♪ | 51:05 | |
| ♪ If you confess the Lord, call him up ♪ | 51:11 | |
| ♪ If you believe in the Father, the Son ♪ | 51:16 | |
| ♪ And the Holy Ghost ♪ | 51:18 | |
| ♪ Call him up ♪ | 51:21 | |
| ♪ And tell him what you want ♪ | 51:23 | |
| ♪ Delight yourself in the Lord ♪ | 51:28 | |
| ♪ And he will give you the desires of thine heart ♪ | 51:33 | |
| ♪ Jesus knows sometimes we stumble ♪ | 51:38 | |
| ♪ Jesus knows sometimes we fall ♪ | 51:41 | |
| ♪ Call him up ♪ | 51:44 | |
| ♪ And tell him what you want ♪ | 51:46 | |
| ♪ Delight yourself in the Lord ♪ | 51:51 | |
| ♪ And he will give you the desires of thine heart ♪ | 51:55 | |
| ♪ Jesus knows sometimes we stumble ♪ | 52:01 | |
| ♪ Jesus knows sometimes we fall ♪ | 52:04 | |
| ♪ Call him up ♪ | 52:07 | |
| ♪ And tell him what you want ♪ | 52:08 | |
| ♪ When darkness comes your way ♪ | 52:19 | |
| ♪ Call him up ♪ | 52:21 | |
| ♪ He'll brighten up your day ♪ | 52:25 | |
| ♪ Call him up ♪ | 52:27 | |
| ♪ When darkness comes your way ♪ | 52:31 | |
| ♪ Call him up ♪ | 52:33 | |
| ♪ He'll brighten up your day ♪ | 52:36 | |
| ♪ Call him up ♪ | 52:38 | |
| ♪ If you believe in the Father, the Son ♪ | 52:42 | |
| ♪ And the Holy Ghost ♪ | 52:44 | |
| ♪ Call him up ♪ | 52:47 | |
| ♪ And tell him what you want ♪ | 52:48 | |
| ♪ Delight yourself in the Lord ♪ | 52:53 | |
| ♪ And he will give you the desires of thine heart ♪ | 52:58 | |
| ♪ Jesus knows sometimes we stumble ♪ | 53:04 | |
| ♪ Jesus knows sometimes we fall ♪ | 53:06 | |
| ♪ Call him up ♪ | 53:09 | |
| ♪ And tell him what you want ♪ | 53:11 | |
| ♪ Can't stop praising his name ♪ | 53:23 | |
| ♪ I just can't stop praising his name ♪ | 53:25 | |
| ♪ I just can't stop praising his name ♪ | 53:27 | |
| ♪ Jesus ♪ | 53:31 | |
| ♪ Can't stop praising his name ♪ | 53:34 | |
| ♪ I just can't stop praising his name ♪ | 53:36 | |
| ♪ I just can't stop praising his name ♪ | 53:39 | |
| ♪ Jesus ♪ | 53:42 | |
| ♪ Can't stop praising his name ♪ | 53:45 | |
| ♪ I just can't stop praising his name ♪ | 53:47 | |
| ♪ I just can't stop praising his name ♪ | 53:50 | |
| ♪ Jesus ♪ | 53:53 | |
| ♪ Jesus ♪ | 53:58 | |
| ♪ Jesus, Jesus ♪ | 54:01 | |
| ♪ Jesus, Jesus ♪ | 54:04 | |
| ♪ Jesus, Hallelujah, Jesus ♪ | 54:07 | |
| ♪ Praise his holy name ♪ | 54:11 | |
| ♪ Jesus, Hallelujah, Jesus ♪ | 54:12 | |
| ♪ Praise his holy name ♪ | 54:17 | |
| ♪ Can't stop praising his name ♪ | 54:18 | |
| ♪ I just can't stop praising his name ♪ | 54:20 | |
| ♪ I just can't stop praising his name ♪ | 54:23 | |
| ♪ Jesus ♪ | 54:26 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 54:28 | |
| (jaunty piano music) | 54:42 | |
| (choir clapping) | 55:04 | |
| ♪ I don't possess houses or land ♪ | 55:14 | |
| ♪ Fine clothes or jewelry ♪ | 55:17 | |
| ♪ Sorrows and cares of this old world ♪ | 55:21 | |
| ♪ My lot seems to be ♪ | 55:25 | |
| ♪ But I have Christ, he paid the price ♪ | 55:29 | |
| ♪ Way back on Calvary ♪ | 55:33 | |
| ♪ And Christ is all ♪ | 55:36 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 55:38 | |
| ♪ He's everything to me, he ♪ | 55:40 | |
| ♪ I don't possess houses or land ♪ | 55:44 | |
| ♪ Fine clothes or jewelry ♪ | 55:48 | |
| ♪ Sorrows and cares of this old world ♪ | 55:51 | |
| ♪ My lot seems to be ♪ | 55:55 | |
| ♪ But I have Christ, he paid the price ♪ | 55:59 | |
| ♪ Way back on Calvary ♪ | 56:03 | |
| ♪ And Christ is all ♪ | 56:07 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 56:08 | |
| ♪ He's everything to me, he ♪ | 56:10 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 56:16 | |
| ♪ He's everything to me ♪ | 56:19 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 56:22 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 56:24 | |
| ♪ He rules the land and sea ♪ | 56:26 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 56:29 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 56:31 | |
| ♪ Without him, nothing could be ♪ | 56:34 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 56:37 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 56:39 | |
| ♪ He's everything to me, he ♪ | 56:41 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 56:47 | |
| ♪ He's everything to me ♪ | 56:50 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 56:52 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 56:54 | |
| ♪ He rules the land and sea ♪ | 56:57 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 57:00 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 57:02 | |
| ♪ Without him, nothing could be ♪ | 57:05 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 57:08 | |
| ♪ Yes, Christ is all ♪ | 57:10 | |
| ♪ He's everything to me, he ♪ | 57:12 | |
| ♪ My joy in sorrow ♪ | 57:18 | |
| ♪ My hope for tomorrow ♪ | 57:20 | |
| ♪ He's everything ♪ | 57:22 | |
| ♪ Everything to me ♪ | 57:24 | |
| ♪ Food on the table ♪ | 57:26 | |
| ♪ I know he's able ♪ | 57:28 | |
| ♪ He's everything ♪ | 57:30 | |
| ♪ Everything to me ♪ | 57:32 | |
| ♪ He saved me ♪ | 57:34 | |
| ♪ He raised me ♪ | 57:36 | |
| ♪ He healed me ♪ | 57:38 | |
| ♪ He delivered me ♪ | 57:40 | |
| ♪ I tried him ♪ | 57:42 | |
| ♪ I trust him ♪ | 57:44 | |
| ♪ I love him ♪ | 57:46 | |
| ♪ I love him ♪ | 57:48 | |
| ♪ Yes, he's everything ♪ | 57:50 | |
| ♪ Yes, he's everything to me ♪ | 57:53 | |
| ♪ I love the Lord ♪ | ||
| ♪ Yes, he's everything ♪ | 57:57 | |
| ♪ Yes, he's everything to me ♪ | 58:01 | |
| ♪ I love the Lord ♪ | ||
| ♪ Yes, he's everything ♪ | 58:05 | |
| ♪ Yes, he's everything to me ♪ | 58:09 | |
| ♪ I love the Lord ♪ | ||
| ♪ Yes, he's everything ♪ | 58:13 | |
| ♪ Yes, he's everything to me ♪ | 58:16 | |
| ♪ I love the Lord ♪ | ||
| ♪ Yes, he's everything ♪ | 58:20 | |
| (audience cheering) | ||
| ♪ Yes, he's everything to me ♪ | 58:24 | |
| ♪ Yes, he's everything ♪ | 58:28 | |
| (congregation cheering) | ||
| ♪ Yes, he's everything to me ♪ | 58:32 | |
| ♪ Yes, he's everything ♪ | 58:36 | |
| (congregation cheering) | ||
| ♪ Yes, he's ♪ | 58:40 | |
| ♪ I love the Lord, he's everything ♪ | 58:41 | |
| ♪ Yes, he's everything ♪ | 58:43 | |
| ♪ Yes, he's everything to me ♪ | 58:47 | |
| ♪ I love the Lord ♪ | ||
| ♪ Yes ♪ | 58:51 | |
| (congregation applauding and cheering) | 58:54 | |
| (jaunty piano music) | 59:21 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 59:33 | |
| - | Truly, this is to be reckoned one of the great moments | 1:00:15 |
| in the history of this university | 1:00:20 | |
| and of the city of Durham. | 1:00:24 | |
| Well, following me to the podium | 1:00:29 | |
| will be the Reverend Bernice A. King. | 1:00:34 | |
| If you think you've heard the name before, you have. | 1:00:42 | |
| For the Reverend King | 1:00:48 | |
| is the third generation | 1:00:51 | |
| of an illustrious family | 1:00:55 | |
| devoted to the service | 1:01:01 | |
| of God and man. | 1:01:05 | |
| So she comes well-recommended, | 1:01:10 | |
| not only because | 1:01:14 | |
| of her place in the context | 1:01:18 | |
| of the life of that great martyr, | 1:01:23 | |
| Martin Luther King, | 1:01:28 | |
| who was her father, | 1:01:32 | |
| but because of who she is | 1:01:35 | |
| in her own right. | 1:01:39 | |
| In her own right, | 1:01:43 | |
| she's a very young woman, | 1:01:48 | |
| a graduate of Spelman University | 1:01:51 | |
| with a divinity degree from Emory University, | 1:02:00 | |
| doctor of laws from Emory University. | 1:02:07 | |
| She is a person who at a very tender age | 1:02:14 | |
| dedicated her life to God | 1:02:21 | |
| and to the service of man. | 1:02:26 | |
| She's a woman who was called to preach | 1:02:32 | |
| at the age of 17, | 1:02:37 | |
| the same year | 1:02:42 | |
| that she addressed the United Nations Assembly. | 1:02:45 | |
| The Reverend King | 1:02:51 | |
| serves on the board | 1:02:55 | |
| of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center | 1:02:56 | |
| for Nonviolent Change. | 1:03:00 | |
| She has a very active prison ministry. | 1:03:05 | |
| She has a full schedule of community services. | 1:03:10 | |
| And in her spare time, | 1:03:16 | |
| she is the associate minister | 1:03:20 | |
| of the Greater Rising Star Baptist Church | 1:03:25 | |
| in the city of Atlanta. | 1:03:30 | |
| But she is more than all that. | 1:03:35 | |
| She is the continuation of a dream, | 1:03:41 | |
| a dream that must not be permitted to languish. | 1:03:46 | |
| And in the spirit of the promise of that dream, | 1:03:54 | |
| we welcome the Reverend Bernice A. King | 1:04:01 | |
| to Duke University and to Durham. | 1:04:07 | |
| May God bless her vision, | 1:04:13 | |
| and may we receive her | 1:04:18 | |
| with love and appreciation. | 1:04:21 | |
| The Reverend King. | 1:04:24 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:04:25 | |
| (lilting piano music) | 1:05:40 | |
| ♪ Praise God ♪ | 1:07:04 | |
| ♪ Praise God ♪ | 1:07:09 | |
| ♪ God is worthy to be praised ♪ | 1:07:13 | |
| ♪ Ohhhh ♪ | 1:07:19 | |
| ♪ Oh, praise God ♪ | 1:07:21 | |
| ♪ Oh, praise him ♪ | 1:07:27 | |
| ♪ Praise God ♪ | ||
| ♪ God is worthy to be praised ♪ | 1:07:32 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:07:42 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah, whoa ♪ | 1:07:45 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | ||
| ♪ God is worthy to be praised ♪ | 1:07:51 | |
| ♪ Lift your head and sing Hallelujah ♪ | 1:07:57 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:08:00 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:08:04 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | ||
| ♪ God is worthy ♪ | 1:08:09 | |
| ♪ God is worthy to be praised ♪ | ||
| ♪ Whoa, can you say God is worthy ♪ | 1:08:14 | |
| ♪ God is worthy ♪ | 1:08:19 | |
| ♪ Oh, yes he is ♪ | 1:08:22 | |
| ♪ God is worthy ♪ | ||
| ♪ My god is worthy ♪ | 1:08:27 | |
| ♪ God is worthy to be praised ♪ | ||
| ♪ Whoa, he is worthy ♪ | 1:08:32 | |
| ♪ Ohhhh ♪ | 1:08:35 | |
| ♪ Lord, he is worthy ♪ | ||
| ♪ God is worthy ♪ | 1:08:37 | |
| ♪ My God is worthy ♪ | ||
| ♪ Whoa, God is worthy ♪ | 1:08:41 | |
| ♪ God is worthy ♪ | ||
| ♪ God is worthy ♪ | 1:08:45 | |
| ♪ God is worthy to be praised ♪ | ||
| - | If God has ever done something special in your life. | 1:08:53 |
| Has he ever been that person you know where to turn to? | 1:08:58 | |
| Have he ever been that special friend | 1:09:02 | |
| when you needed someone the most? | 1:09:05 | |
| Then, church, let's step out once and say. | 1:09:07 | |
| ♪ Praise ♪ | 1:09:09 | |
| ♪ Praise God ♪ | 1:09:13 | |
| ♪ Whoa, praise God ♪ | ||
| ♪ Praise God ♪ | 1:09:17 | |
| (congregation applauding) | ||
| ♪ God is worthy ♪ | 1:09:21 | |
| ♪ God is worthy ♪ | 1:09:22 | |
| ♪ Yes, he is ♪ | ||
| ♪ To be praised ♪ | 1:09:25 | |
| ♪ Whoooaaa ♪ | ||
| ♪ Ohhhh ♪ | 1:09:28 | |
| ♪ Praise God ♪ | 1:09:31 | |
| ♪ God, praise God ♪ | ||
| ♪ Praise God ♪ | 1:09:35 | |
| ♪ Lord God is ♪ | 1:09:39 | |
| ♪ God is worthy ♪ | ||
| ♪ To be praised ♪ | 1:09:43 | |
| ♪ He's been better to us than we've been to ourselves ♪ | 1:09:45 | |
| ♪ God is worthy ♪ | 1:09:48 | |
| ♪ God is worthy ♪ | ||
| ♪ To be praised ♪ | 1:09:51 | |
| ♪ Oh, I know he is ♪ | ||
| ♪ Yes, he is ♪ | 1:09:55 | |
| ♪ My God is worthy ♪ | 1:09:56 | |
| ♪ God is worthy ♪ | ||
| ♪ To be praised ♪ | 1:10:00 | |
| ♪ Ohhhhh ♪ | ||
| ♪ Praise God ♪ | 1:10:04 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:10:10 | |
| (gentle piano music) | 1:10:26 | |
| ♪ King of my life ♪ | 1:10:57 | |
| ♪ I crown thee now ♪ | 1:11:00 | |
| ♪ Thine shall the glory be ♪ | 1:11:04 | |
| ♪ Lest I forget ♪ | 1:11:10 | |
| ♪ Thy thorn-crowned brow ♪ | 1:11:12 | |
| ♪ Lead me to Calvary ♪ | 1:11:16 | |
| ♪ King of my life ♪ | 1:11:23 | |
| ♪ I crown thee now ♪ | 1:11:25 | |
| ♪ Thine shall the glory be ♪ | 1:11:29 | |
| ♪ Lest I forget ♪ | 1:11:35 | |
| ♪ Thy thorn-crowned brow ♪ | 1:11:37 | |
| ♪ Lead me to Calvary ♪ | 1:11:41 | |
| ♪ Lest I forget ♪ | 1:11:47 | |
| ♪ Gethsemane ♪ | 1:11:50 | |
| ♪ Lest I forget ♪ | 1:11:53 | |
| ♪ Thine agony ♪ | 1:11:56 | |
| ♪ Lest I forget thy love for me ♪ | 1:11:59 | |
| ♪ Lead me to Calvary ♪ | 1:12:05 | |
| ♪ Lest I forget ♪ | 1:12:11 | |
| ♪ Gethsemane ♪ | 1:12:14 | |
| ♪ Lest I forget ♪ | 1:12:20 | |
| ♪ Thine agony ♪ | 1:12:23 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:12:30 | |
| ♪ Lest I forget thy love for me ♪ | 1:12:30 | |
| ♪ Lead me to Calvary ♪ | 1:12:36 | |
| ♪ Lead me to Calvary ♪ | 1:12:42 | |
| ♪ Lead me to Calvary ♪ | 1:12:48 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:12:55 |
| ♪ Ohhhhhhhhhh ♪ | 1:12:56 | |
| ♪ Ohhhh ♪ | 1:12:58 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:13:01 | |
| ♪ Ohhhhhhhhhh ♪ | 1:13:03 | |
| ♪ Ohhhh ♪ | 1:13:06 | |
| ♪ Ohhhh ♪ | 1:13:08 | |
| ♪ Ohhhh ♪ | 1:13:10 | |
| (congregation applauding) | ||
| ♪ Ohhhh ♪ | 1:13:12 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:13:16 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:13:18 | |
| (lively piano music) | 1:13:37 | |
| (choir clapping) | 1:13:41 | |
| ♪ Leaning, keep leaning on Jesus ♪ | 1:14:05 | |
| ♪ Every step of the way ♪ | 1:14:10 | |
| ♪ Lord, keep us under your wing ♪ | 1:14:14 | |
| ♪ Every step of the way ♪ | 1:14:18 | |
| ♪ Yes ♪ | 1:14:21 | |
| ♪ Leaning, keep leaning on Jesus ♪ | 1:14:23 | |
| ♪ Every step of the way ♪ | 1:14:27 | |
| ♪ Lord keep us under your wing ♪ | 1:14:31 | |
| ♪ Every step of the way ♪ | 1:14:35 | |
| ♪ Yes ♪ | 1:14:38 | |
| ♪ Once I praise you, once I glorify, ♪ | 1:14:48 | |
| ♪ Lean on the blessed hope ♪ | 1:14:52 | |
| ♪ Once I praise you, once I praise the light ♪ | 1:14:56 | |
| ♪ Every step of the way ♪ | 1:15:00 | |
| ♪ Yes ♪ | 1:15:03 | |
| ♪ Once I praise you, once I glorify ♪ | 1:15:05 | |
| ♪ Lean on the blessed hope ♪ | 1:15:09 | |
| ♪ Once I praise you, once I praise the light ♪ | 1:15:13 | |
| ♪ Every step of the way ♪ | 1:15:17 | |
| ♪ Yes ♪ | 1:15:19 | |
| ♪ Whoa, he'll be there ♪ | 1:15:28 | |
| ♪ He'll be there come trouble to keep you safe ♪ | 1:15:30 | |
| ♪ The Lord will ♪ | 1:15:33 | |
| ♪ He'll be there come trouble to keep you safe ♪ | 1:15:34 | |
| ♪ My God will ♪ | 1:15:37 | |
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:15:39 | |
| ♪ Oh, yes, he will ♪ | ||
| ♪ The Lord will ♪ | 1:15:41 | |
| ♪ He'll be there come trouble to keep you safe ♪ | 1:15:43 | |
| ♪ My God will ♪ | 1:15:45 | |
| ♪ He'll be there come trouble to keep you safe ♪ | 1:15:47 | |
| ♪ Yes, he will, yeah ♪ | 1:15:49 | |
| ♪ He'll be there come trouble to keep you safe ♪ | 1:15:51 | |
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:15:53 | |
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:15:54 | |
| ♪ Oh, he'll be there ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:15:57 | |
| ♪ My God will ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:15:59 | |
| ♪ Oh, yes, he will ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:01 | |
| ♪ The Lord will ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:03 | |
| ♪ Oh, yes, he will ♪ | ||
| ♪ He may not come when you want him but he's right on time ♪ | 1:16:05 | |
| ♪ The Lord will ♪ | 1:16:09 | |
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:11 | |
| ♪ Oh, yes, he will ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:13 | |
| ♪ My God will ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:15 | |
| ♪ Oh, yes, he will ♪ | ||
| ♪ He may not come when you want him but he's right on time ♪ | 1:16:17 | |
| ♪ He may not come when you want him but he's right on time ♪ | 1:16:21 | |
| ♪ Just call him in the morning ♪ | 1:16:25 | |
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:27 | |
| ♪ Just call him in the new day ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:29 | |
| ♪ Just call him in the evening ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:31 | |
| ♪ Oh, yes, he will ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:32 | |
| ♪ Through your trial ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:35 | |
| ♪ And tribulation ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:37 | |
| ♪ My God will ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:39 | |
| ♪ Oh, yes, he will ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:41 | |
| ♪ The Lord will ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:43 | |
| ♪ Oh, yes, he will ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:45 | |
| ♪ One more time ♪ | ||
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | 1:16:47 | |
| ♪ Oh, yes, he will ♪ | ||
| ♪ Lord, yeah ♪ | 1:16:48 | |
| ♪ He'll be there ♪ | ||
| ♪ Glorify some more ♪ | 1:16:50 | |
| ♪ Yeah, Lord ♪ | ||
| ♪ You are there ♪ | 1:16:52 | |
| ♪ Every ♪ | 1:16:53 | |
| ♪ Every step ♪ | ||
| ♪ Every step, yeah ♪ | 1:16:55 | |
| ♪ Every step ♪ | 1:16:56 | |
| ♪ Every step, yeah ♪ | ||
| ♪ Every step of the way ♪ | 1:16:58 | |
| ♪ Yes ♪ | 1:17:00 | |
| ♪ He will be there ♪ | 1:17:04 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:17:05 | |
| - | Let the church say Amen. | 1:18:33 |
| Congregation | Amen. | 1:18:35 |
| - | This is the day that the Lord have made. | 1:18:40 |
| - | [Congregation Member] Yes, it is. | 1:18:45 |
| - | This is also the day that the Lord | 1:18:49 |
| made Martin Luther King Jr. | 1:18:53 | |
| And I'd ask you if you would indulge me | 1:18:59 | |
| for a quick moment, | 1:19:02 | |
| if we could together with uplifted voices | 1:19:04 | |
| wish my father a happy birthday in unison. | 1:19:08 | |
| And when I say three, | 1:19:13 | |
| you say happy birthday, Dr. King. | 1:19:15 | |
| - | Amen. | 1:19:18 |
| - | One, two, three. | |
| Congregation | Happy birthday, Dr. King. | 1:19:24 |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:19:28 | |
| - | God is a mysterious God, | 1:19:44 |
| and a moment ago, | 1:19:46 | |
| we experienced a change in the program. | 1:19:49 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 1:19:53 | |
| And many of you thought it was human error, | 1:19:54 | |
| but it was the spirit of God. | 1:19:56 | |
| Congregation | Yes. | 1:19:59 |
| - | Because where I come from in the Baptist Church, | 1:20:00 |
| we're used to folks singing | 1:20:02 | |
| to prepare us for the message that we're gonna bring forth. | 1:20:05 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:20:07 | |
| God always | 1:20:16 | |
| protects his own. | 1:20:20 | |
| To Reverend Brazil, Mayor Kerckhoff, | 1:20:25 | |
| Dr. Blazen, Dr. Armstrong, | 1:20:29 | |
| to this distinguished educator Dr. C. Eric Lincoln, | 1:20:34 | |
| to all of those clergy persons | 1:20:42 | |
| who labor in the vineyard with me, | 1:20:44 | |
| to our wonderful choirs for this program. | 1:20:50 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:20:55 | |
| And to all of you, my brothers and sisters. | 1:21:02 | |
| I first and foremost want to thank God my Father | 1:21:07 | |
| for watching over me and protecting me. | 1:21:12 | |
| I want to thank his son Jesus Christ | 1:21:16 | |
| for my sole salvation. | 1:21:20 | |
| Congregation | Amen. | 1:21:22 |
| - | And I want to thank God | 1:21:24 |
| through the person of the Holy Spirit | 1:21:25 | |
| for giving me the strength to be an overcomer | 1:21:28 | |
| in these challenging times. | 1:21:32 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:21:34 | |
| It is indeed with a sense of joy | 1:21:42 | |
| that I stand before you on today, | 1:21:46 | |
| and I wish to thank | 1:21:49 | |
| Dr. Beckham through Mr. Hunt | 1:21:52 | |
| and all of the Duke family | 1:21:55 | |
| for inviting me to share with you | 1:21:57 | |
| in your Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. | 1:21:59 | |
| At one point in my life, I almost became a Dukie. | 1:22:05 | |
| (congregation laughing and applauding) | 1:22:10 | |
| But when I arrived on campus, | 1:22:17 | |
| the campus was so large | 1:22:20 | |
| that it was overwhelming, | 1:22:24 | |
| and the faces that I'm familiar with were very absent. | 1:22:27 | |
| (congregation laughing and applauding) | 1:22:31 | |
| And so it was hard for me at the age of 17 | 1:22:44 | |
| leaving the safe, comfortable confines of mother's nest | 1:22:47 | |
| to find comfort | 1:22:51 | |
| and a sense of home in an environment | 1:22:54 | |
| that would have been totally different | 1:22:57 | |
| from an environment that I came from. | 1:22:59 | |
| So I ran back home. | 1:23:01 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 1:23:03 | |
| Yes, I was a coward at that time, | 1:23:06 | |
| but thanks be to God for grace and growth. | 1:23:09 | |
| Congregation | Amen. | 1:23:13 |
| - | But I'm back here on this campus today, | 1:23:16 |
| and I thank God for it. | 1:23:19 | |
| I've been telling people everywhere I've traveled this week. | 1:23:22 | |
| I've gone to Utah, to the University of Utah. | 1:23:25 | |
| I visited Morris Plains, New Jersey, | 1:23:29 | |
| a corporation there. | 1:23:33 | |
| The name slips me for some reason right now, | 1:23:35 | |
| the Warner-Lambert Corporation, | 1:23:38 | |
| which is responsible for the Halls that you eat | 1:23:40 | |
| and many, a lot of the products, | 1:23:43 | |
| Listerine, et cetera. | 1:23:45 | |
| I visited that corporation on Friday, | 1:23:47 | |
| and on Saturday morning, I was in Worcester, Massachusetts | 1:23:50 | |
| at Quinsigamond Community College. | 1:23:54 | |
| But I say all that to say | 1:23:56 | |
| that when I visited these various places, | 1:23:58 | |
| it is not unheard of during this time of the year | 1:24:01 | |
| for them to experience very cold and snowy weather. | 1:24:05 | |
| But when I arrived in Utah, | 1:24:10 | |
| the sun was shining, it was 48 degrees. | 1:24:11 | |
| I arrived in New Jersey, it was 56 degrees. | 1:24:14 | |
| I got to Massachusetts and it was going to be 60 that day. | 1:24:17 | |
| And today I'm at Duke, and I understand | 1:24:22 | |
| that this is unseasonably warm weather here. | 1:24:24 | |
| And I say that to say I brought the weather with me. | 1:24:28 | |
| (congregation laughing and applauding) | 1:24:31 | |
| When I leave, it might change | 1:24:38 | |
| 'cause I'm gonna take it back to Atlanta | 1:24:40 | |
| and on over to LA tomorrow. | 1:24:42 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 1:24:44 | |
| Keep traveling with it. | 1:24:45 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:24:47 |
| - | There's a story | 1:24:56 |
| about a little boy and his father | 1:25:02 | |
| who were out on the lake fishing one day, | 1:25:07 | |
| and out of nowhere, the little boy started giggling. | 1:25:13 | |
| And the daddy said, "Johnny, why are you laughing? | 1:25:19 | |
| What's so funny?" | 1:25:24 | |
| And little Johnny didn't say a mumbling word. | 1:25:27 | |
| Well, a couple of hours passed and it was high noon, | 1:25:32 | |
| and little Johnny started giggling some more. | 1:25:35 | |
| And Daddy said, "Johnny, | 1:25:41 | |
| please tell me why are you laughing. | 1:25:44 | |
| I want to join with you." | 1:25:46 | |
| Little Johnny just said, "You'll see after a while, Daddy." | 1:25:50 | |
| Well, a couple of more hours pass by and guess what? | 1:25:55 | |
| Little Johnny started giggling some more. | 1:25:59 | |
| And by this time his father was infuriated, | 1:26:03 | |
| and so he said with righteous indignation, | 1:26:06 | |
| "Johnny, if you don't tell me what you're laughing about, | 1:26:09 | |
| I'm gonna whoop you." | 1:26:12 | |
| Well, little Johnny said, "Daddy," | 1:26:16 | |
| and he took his finger and he pointed over to Daddy's side, | 1:26:20 | |
| and he said, "You have a hole | 1:26:24 | |
| in your side of the boat, | 1:26:28 | |
| and you're gonna drown." | 1:26:31 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 1:26:33 | |
| But what little Johnny did not realize | 1:26:37 | |
| in his little mind was that he was in the same boat. | 1:26:41 | |
| (congregation laughing and applauding) | 1:26:44 | |
| And if Daddy drowned, he was going to drown with him. | 1:26:49 | |
| Well, let me see if I can bring it home. | 1:26:52 | |
| (congregation laughing and applauding) | 1:26:56 | |
| When my father was living, | 1:27:06 | |
| one of the things he talked about | 1:27:08 | |
| is that this nation and world in which we live | 1:27:10 | |
| is threatened by three evil forces, | 1:27:14 | |
| and he called them poverty, racism, and war. | 1:27:18 | |
| And in many ways, these waters, | 1:27:26 | |
| these dangerous waters of poverty, racism, and war | 1:27:28 | |
| are seeking to overtake us | 1:27:34 | |
| in our society. | 1:27:38 | |
| And I often wonder, why do we have | 1:27:42 | |
| a hole in our boat? | 1:27:46 | |
| Why are we threatened | 1:27:49 | |
| by these evil forces? | 1:27:52 | |
| Why, in fact, have we allowed them to seep through | 1:27:54 | |
| in a society that's based | 1:28:00 | |
| in a premise that we are one nation under God? | 1:28:04 | |
| And I took my mind back to the time in Montgomery, Alabama. | 1:28:10 | |
| I wasn't there but the words come to me | 1:28:17 | |
| off of the sheets of paper that my father wrote on | 1:28:21 | |
| in a book called "Stride Toward Freedom." | 1:28:26 | |
| And he said, "When I got to Montgomery, Alabama, | 1:28:30 | |
| what really amazed me | 1:28:33 | |
| was not the fact | 1:28:37 | |
| that there were evil white brothers and sisters | 1:28:38 | |
| who were perpetuating a segregationist system, | 1:28:41 | |
| a system steeped in racism, | 1:28:45 | |
| but what disturbs me | 1:28:48 | |
| are the moderate white brothers and sisters | 1:28:50 | |
| who sit in places of comfortability, | 1:28:54 | |
| who are good in their hearts, | 1:28:58 | |
| but who sit by | 1:29:01 | |
| and do nothing." | 1:29:04 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:29:05 |
| - | And as I think about those very words | 1:29:09 |
| and I look out at all of you, | 1:29:13 | |
| I say to myself | 1:29:19 | |
| that in a real sense | 1:29:21 | |
| the reason we are threatened with the evils | 1:29:22 | |
| of poverty, racism, and war | 1:29:25 | |
| is because there's some good folks | 1:29:29 | |
| who are sitting here today. | 1:29:30 | |
| - | Amen. | 1:29:32 |
| - | But you're sitting down | |
| on your seat of complacency. | 1:29:34 | |
| You're sitting down on your seat of apathy. | 1:29:36 | |
| You're sitting down on your seat of selfishness. | 1:29:39 | |
| Some are sitting down on their seat of greed. | 1:29:42 | |
| Some are sitting down | 1:29:46 | |
| on their seat of arrogance and elitism. | 1:29:48 | |
| Some are sitting down on their mentality, | 1:29:52 | |
| their atomic mentality. | 1:29:56 | |
| A-T-O-M-I-C, atoms. | 1:29:58 | |
| You know, they just kind of do their own thing. | 1:30:03 | |
| They really don't pay attention | 1:30:07 | |
| to the other atoms that are around. | 1:30:08 | |
| They just kind of float from place to place. | 1:30:10 | |
| And so today, if you really want to know why | 1:30:15 | |
| you see violence at unprecedented numbers, | 1:30:20 | |
| if you really want to know | 1:30:23 | |
| why in your country, in my country, | 1:30:24 | |
| every 14 hours, | 1:30:27 | |
| not even one day, complete day, | 1:30:30 | |
| but every 14 hours, | 1:30:33 | |
| a child younger than five years of age | 1:30:37 | |
| is murdered. | 1:30:41 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen! | 1:30:42 |
| - | And I want you to know these are not Black statistics. | 1:30:46 |
| These are national statistics. | 1:30:49 | |
| And so to say it's not my problem | 1:30:54 | |
| because the hole's not on my side of the boat | 1:30:57 | |
| and I'm not gonna drown in this, | 1:31:00 | |
| you're deceiving yourself. | 1:31:04 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:31:06 | |
| But really, really what does that have to do | 1:31:19 | |
| with Martin Luther King Jr.? | 1:31:26 | |
| It has everything to do with him. | 1:31:28 | |
| Because we've gathered here today | 1:31:33 | |
| in his honor, | 1:31:35 | |
| in his recognition. | 1:31:37 | |
| And the irony of a gathering of this sort | 1:31:39 | |
| with people from all walks of the American life | 1:31:43 | |
| is that he, in fact, brought us together | 1:31:49 | |
| in a physical sense. | 1:31:53 | |
| But after tomorrow, | 1:31:57 | |
| at midnight, | 1:32:01 | |
| we will go back to doing some of the same things, | 1:32:03 | |
| thinking some of the same ways, | 1:32:08 | |
| and practicing some of the same ideologies. | 1:32:10 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:32:13 | |
| And the message I bring to you today | 1:32:23 | |
| is what I think can help you | 1:32:29 | |
| and even me | 1:32:32 | |
| get out of our complacency and apathy. | 1:32:35 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:32:39 |
| - | Apathy. | 1:32:40 |
| For, you see, Martin King | 1:32:43 | |
| was able to do something | 1:32:46 | |
| that not too many Americans have ever done, | 1:32:49 | |
| and that's really why masses of people followed him. | 1:32:56 | |
| No, it was not everybody. | 1:33:00 | |
| I'm no fool. | 1:33:04 | |
| But the reason that he could garner support | 1:33:06 | |
| from a cross-section of people | 1:33:08 | |
| who were committed and determined | 1:33:11 | |
| to follow his leadership | 1:33:15 | |
| was because of what he recognized | 1:33:18 | |
| as the spark of the divine. | 1:33:22 | |
| He read on a sheet of paper | 1:33:27 | |
| that "we hold these truths | 1:33:32 | |
| to be self-evident, | 1:33:36 | |
| that all," paraphrase, people | 1:33:39 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 1:33:45 | |
| "are created equal." | 1:33:46 | |
| (congregation applauding) | ||
| Self-evident. | 1:33:51 | |
| Well, how did he know it was self-evident? | 1:33:52 | |
| Well, he recalled | 1:33:54 | |
| back in the book of Genesis, that first chapter, | 1:33:57 | |
| that 26th verse, | 1:34:01 | |
| reading, "And God said, | 1:34:03 | |
| let us make man," | 1:34:07 | |
| which means really humanity in its interpretation, | 1:34:09 | |
| "in our image | 1:34:14 | |
| and after our likeness." | 1:34:17 | |
| And then he skipped over to the book of Psalm | 1:34:19 | |
| in the sixth chapter, | 1:34:22 | |
| and he read that God made man | 1:34:24 | |
| a little lower than the angels, | 1:34:31 | |
| and he crowned him with glory and honor. | 1:34:35 | |
| Well, what does that mean? | 1:34:37 | |
| I'm not a church person. | 1:34:38 | |
| I don't read the Bible. | 1:34:39 | |
| What are you saying, preacher? | 1:34:41 | |
| I don't know God intimately. | 1:34:44 | |
| This is foreign to me. | 1:34:45 | |
| What does it have to do with my education here at Duke? | 1:34:46 | |
| What does it have to do with my life? | 1:34:51 | |
| Well, it has everything to do with your life. | 1:34:54 | |
| Because in a real sense, it's not until you recognize | 1:34:58 | |
| that spark of divine | 1:35:01 | |
| in your fellow woman and man | 1:35:03 | |
| that you really have not started | 1:35:08 | |
| to live a true life. | 1:35:11 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:35:12 |
| - | Because in a real sense, | 1:35:14 |
| when you strip away everything that makes us different, | 1:35:17 | |
| at the core, at the foundation, | 1:35:22 | |
| the thing that makes this building be able to stand | 1:35:25 | |
| and not cave in | 1:35:29 | |
| is something that we have in common. | 1:35:32 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:35:35 |
| - | And that thing is God. | 1:35:36 |
| That thing, if you break it down, | 1:35:41 | |
| is humanness at its best. | 1:35:45 | |
| And so I say to you today, | 1:35:52 | |
| my brothers and sisters, | 1:35:56 | |
| if you're going to start living a true and meaningful life, | 1:36:02 | |
| then you're gonna have to start discovering first | 1:36:08 | |
| the divine spark in yourself. | 1:36:12 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:36:16 |
| - | Because in a real sense, | 1:36:17 |
| you cannot even tap in to anybody else's | 1:36:20 | |
| until you see your own. | 1:36:25 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:36:26 | |
| And so after you tap into it and you see it, | 1:36:37 | |
| then you've got to find a way | 1:36:40 | |
| to call it forth into life. | 1:36:41 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:36:45 |
| - | That's why Martin Luther King was great. | 1:36:47 |
| Not because he said "I have a dream." | 1:36:51 | |
| He was not a dreamer. | 1:36:54 | |
| Martin Luther King Jr., | 1:36:57 | |
| although he captured in that speech | 1:36:59 | |
| the essence of the kingdom of God | 1:37:03 | |
| and articulated eloquently his dream, | 1:37:05 | |
| Martin Luther King Jr. was really one | 1:37:10 | |
| who lived out of that spark of divine that was in him, | 1:37:13 | |
| and he connected to the spark of divine that was in others. | 1:37:19 | |
| Whether they were Black, white, rich, poor, | 1:37:23 | |
| Jew, Gentile, Protestant, Catholic, | 1:37:27 | |
| he didn't care. | 1:37:32 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:37:34 |
| - | Because he understood | 1:37:35 |
| that we're all in the same boat. | 1:37:38 | |
| And that it doesn't matter whether I have a PhD degree, | 1:37:44 | |
| an intellectual astuteness. | 1:37:49 | |
| It doesn't matter that I come | 1:37:52 | |
| with a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. | 1:37:54 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:37:58 |
| - | Because what really matters | 1:38:02 |
| is the fact | 1:38:07 | |
| that I'm able | 1:38:09 | |
| to enjoy these accomplishments | 1:38:11 | |
| in comfort, in convenience, | 1:38:15 | |
| in good conscience, in peace. | 1:38:20 | |
| How can you sit on a PhD degree? | 1:38:25 | |
| How can you sit in a rich lifestyle? | 1:38:29 | |
| How can you sit in a majority race | 1:38:34 | |
| and feel comfortable | 1:38:38 | |
| when there's some other folks | 1:38:41 | |
| who are victims of circumstances | 1:38:44 | |
| not by their own creation, | 1:38:47 | |
| but by the mere fact | 1:38:50 | |
| that those who've been blessed with these benefits, like me, | 1:38:52 | |
| are sitting on my seat of apathy and complacency | 1:38:58 | |
| and egotism and elitism. | 1:39:03 | |
| How can I be comfortable? | 1:39:06 | |
| What is it gonna take | 1:39:11 | |
| to get you to move? | 1:39:14 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:39:16 |
| - | You can't look to government. | 1:39:18 |
| It's relevant. | 1:39:23 | |
| It's powerful, | 1:39:25 | |
| and in many ways, it dictates part of our lives. | 1:39:26 | |
| But you know government is limited. | 1:39:34 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Okay. | 1:39:38 |
| - | But even if you disagree with me, | 1:39:41 |
| let me present this to you. | 1:39:44 | |
| When we form government, | 1:39:46 | |
| it said of, for, and by the people. | 1:39:49 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:39:54 | |
| Forgetting politicians for a moment, | 1:39:58 | |
| forgetting political special interest groups for a moment. | 1:40:04 | |
| People, that's you and you | 1:40:10 | |
| and me, | 1:40:14 | |
| them. | 1:40:16 | |
| (congregation laughing) | ||
| That's us. | 1:40:19 | |
| And when Martin King challenged us | 1:40:23 | |
| to live out of the divine spark, | 1:40:25 | |
| he was not challenging just government. | 1:40:30 | |
| He was challenging the people. | 1:40:34 | |
| Because the people in a real sense | 1:40:39 | |
| are who keep government accountable. | 1:40:44 | |
| - | Amen. | 1:40:47 |
| - | So true. | |
| - | And if the government messes up, | 1:40:48 |
| it's your fault and my fault. | 1:40:52 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:40:54 | |
| We have a responsibility | 1:41:06 | |
| to live out the true essence of who we are. | 1:41:10 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:41:12 |
| - | Those divine beings | 1:41:14 |
| that were created a little bit lower than the angels | 1:41:18 | |
| in the image of God. | 1:41:22 | |
| But what does that really mean? | 1:41:25 | |
| Well, if there's anything that I could say | 1:41:32 | |
| that really captures the essence | 1:41:35 | |
| of why we celebrate and honor a man | 1:41:38 | |
| who for some is on a page in history, | 1:41:42 | |
| who for others | 1:41:46 | |
| is a significant force in these times | 1:41:49 | |
| because what he said was so much more powerful | 1:41:53 | |
| than a bullet. | 1:41:57 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:41:59 |
| - | If I had to say one thing about Martin Luther King Jr., | 1:42:00 |
| it was the fact that he taught us | 1:42:04 | |
| not by mere words, | 1:42:08 | |
| not by theorizing, | 1:42:11 | |
| not by analyzing, | 1:42:14 | |
| not by dissecting, | 1:42:18 | |
| not by refutation, argument, | 1:42:21 | |
| but he taught us by example | 1:42:28 | |
| a thing called unconditional love | 1:42:33 | |
| because really, when you're created in the image of God, | 1:42:36 | |
| the book says God is love. | 1:42:39 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:42:41 |
| And when you break that down, | 1:42:43 | |
| the book even says, "God so loved | 1:42:44 | |
| that he gave." | 1:42:48 | |
| And so out of the essence of unconditional love | 1:42:50 | |
| comes the word give. | 1:42:53 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:42:55 |
| - | "He gave his only begotten." | 1:42:57 |
| That means he gave the very best of himself. | 1:43:00 | |
| And it had no qualifications. | 1:43:05 | |
| It just says because he so loved, | 1:43:06 | |
| and it didn't say because we were deserving. | 1:43:09 | |
| Congregation | Amen. | 1:43:12 |
| - | It didn't say because I'm required to. | 1:43:15 |
| But it simply said just. | 1:43:19 | |
| Is that Anita Baker that says that? | 1:43:23 | |
| "I love you just because." | 1:43:25 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 1:43:28 | |
| That's the legacy and the reason we come together today. | 1:43:34 | |
| And it's the very thing that stirred up in him | 1:43:41 | |
| and caused him to be uncomfortable | 1:43:46 | |
| and got him off of a seat | 1:43:49 | |
| of complacency and apathy and indifference. | 1:43:51 | |
| Because the love in him just bubbled to the surface. | 1:43:56 | |
| He had so much that he wanted to give | 1:44:00 | |
| that he decided instead of paying lip service | 1:44:05 | |
| to all of this, | 1:44:07 | |
| I'm gonna pay life service. | 1:44:09 | |
| Are you paying life service | 1:44:13 | |
| to those things you say you care about? | 1:44:15 | |
| Oh, I want to live in a peaceful society. | 1:44:19 | |
| I wish we could stop the violence. | 1:44:24 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:44:27 | |
| What are we going to do about | 1:44:34 | |
| these welfare mothers? | 1:44:38 | |
| But love says what are we gonna do | 1:44:44 | |
| about these welfare children? | 1:44:47 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:44:50 |
| - | For you see, in a real sense, | 1:44:50 |
| two-thirds of those on welfare | 1:44:52 | |
| or the recipients of welfare, | 1:44:55 | |
| two-thirds of the recipients | 1:44:58 | |
| are children, not the mothers. | 1:45:00 | |
| And the easy part and the simple part | 1:45:06 | |
| says, "Let's throw them in an orphanage. | 1:45:11 | |
| That will solve our problem." | 1:45:17 | |
| What if somebody had thrown you in an orphanage? | 1:45:26 | |
| Because maybe they didn't want you, | 1:45:31 | |
| because maybe they didn't have the best of circumstances | 1:45:34 | |
| to raise you. | 1:45:37 | |
| They didn't have two cars and a nice fancy house. | 1:45:39 | |
| Pulling down six digits, three digits. | 1:45:44 | |
| Would you want to have been thrown in the orphanage, | 1:45:51 | |
| or did it really make a difference | 1:45:55 | |
| that you had enough love and attention | 1:45:56 | |
| from one or two individuals | 1:46:01 | |
| that made the difference in your life | 1:46:04 | |
| and didn't have to try to share too much of that | 1:46:07 | |
| with a bunch of children? | 1:46:11 | |
| Maybe you did grow up in a home with 13, | 1:46:13 | |
| but it's just something about | 1:46:16 | |
| having your own mother and father, | 1:46:18 | |
| that orphanages, although they may be good for some, | 1:46:23 | |
| can't cure. | 1:46:29 | |
| Unconditional love. | 1:46:32 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:46:33 |
| - | Because, you see, | 1:46:34 |
| in a real sense, | 1:46:42 | |
| there are many of you | 1:46:48 | |
| who have the good fortune of enjoying a lifestyle | 1:46:51 | |
| where you could perhaps take one of these little ones | 1:46:56 | |
| into your own home. | 1:47:01 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:47:03 |
| - | That's unconditional love. | 1:47:06 |
| And I'm not talking about someone who may look like you, | 1:47:10 | |
| but someone who may be a little bit different from you. | 1:47:18 | |
| That's the hard part that we don't want to consider | 1:47:23 | |
| in this country. | 1:47:28 | |
| We give it over to government. | 1:47:29 | |
| Government comes back with orphanages, | 1:47:31 | |
| and we say, | 1:47:37 | |
| "Phew, we finally found the answer." | 1:47:39 | |
| But I say really the answer is in each one of you. | 1:47:43 | |
| And if you don't rise up off of your own seats of apathy, | 1:47:47 | |
| then one day you're gonna find one of those children | 1:47:52 | |
| on your front doorstep. | 1:47:55 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:47:57 |
| - | Because government can really only do so much. | 1:47:59 |
| It's time for the people | 1:48:03 | |
| to get activated. | 1:48:06 | |
| That's what Martin Luther King Jr. | 1:48:08 | |
| challenged us to do because he said, | 1:48:11 | |
| "Progress does not roll in on wheels of inevitability," | 1:48:14 | |
| but in a real sense it comes | 1:48:20 | |
| because of the activism of people. | 1:48:22 | |
| It's time to rise up, you all, | 1:48:27 | |
| and say enough is enough. | 1:48:31 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:48:34 |
| - | We're tired of our children dying in the streets. | 1:48:35 |
| We're tired of economic exploitation, | 1:48:40 | |
| rich getting richer, poor getting poorer, | 1:48:44 | |
| a permanent underclass. | 1:48:47 | |
| (congregation applauding) | ||
| Yeah, we're tired of big- | 1:48:53 | |
| Excuse me, we're tired of | 1:48:55 | |
| wasted spending | 1:48:58 | |
| with our tax dollars, | 1:49:03 | |
| and we need to do something about it. | 1:49:05 | |
| But laws and policies | 1:49:11 | |
| can be passed | 1:49:15 | |
| to solve the simple problem, | 1:49:17 | |
| but there will be a bigger problem left | 1:49:22 | |
| when it's all said and done. | 1:49:25 | |
| When you build more prisons | 1:49:29 | |
| and you put more cops on the street, | 1:49:32 | |
| yes, you've locked up more criminals and violent people, | 1:49:36 | |
| but every day, | 1:49:41 | |
| there are children born into this society, | 1:49:43 | |
| not criminal, | 1:49:47 | |
| but we make them criminal | 1:49:49 | |
| by the circumstances that they have to grow up in. | 1:49:52 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:49:55 | |
| We welcome them into a boat lifestyle that has a hole in it, | 1:50:02 | |
| a hole of poverty and racism. | 1:50:09 | |
| And it breeds hatred | 1:50:12 | |
| and it breeds bitterness | 1:50:14 | |
| and it breeds anger, | 1:50:16 | |
| and it causes that child to grow up and explode. | 1:50:19 | |
| - | Amen. | 1:50:24 |
| - | Amen. | |
| - | And the tragedy is in the midst of it | 1:50:26 |
| is that while some may be exploding on themselves | 1:50:31 | |
| and those immediately around them, | 1:50:35 | |
| one day, they may, in fact, explode on one of us. | 1:50:38 | |
| And so keep sitting down if you want. | 1:50:44 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:50:47 |
| - | But there's work to be done. | 1:50:48 |
| It's not over | 1:50:51 | |
| as long as you have health, life, and breath. | 1:50:53 | |
| Martin King Jr. says to you today through me, | 1:50:59 | |
| do not what's popular | 1:51:06 | |
| because maybe I'm a vain person. | 1:51:11 | |
| Do not what's safe | 1:51:16 | |
| because maybe I'm a coward. | 1:51:19 | |
| But do the right thing | 1:51:22 | |
| because conscience dictates to you, | 1:51:28 | |
| because unconditional love stirs in you, | 1:51:32 | |
| because the spark of the divine lives in you. | 1:51:37 | |
| Do the right thing! | 1:51:41 | |
| - | [Congregation Member] Amen. | 1:51:43 |
| - | And if each and every one of us did that, | 1:51:45 |
| we wouldn't even have to worry about | 1:51:48 | |
| whether or not | 1:51:54 | |
| our son or daughter | 1:51:56 | |
| is going to live to be 25. | 1:51:59 | |
| Martin King had a dream. | 1:52:06 | |
| It was a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream. | 1:52:08 | |
| But I say to you today | 1:52:12 | |
| that unless you allow | 1:52:17 | |
| the unconditional love | 1:52:22 | |
| to come out of your loins | 1:52:25 | |
| and to take on feet, | 1:52:28 | |
| then the dream will be arrested. | 1:52:33 | |
| And children all over this nation, | 1:52:41 | |
| Black, white, | 1:52:45 | |
| rich, poor, | 1:52:47 | |
| learned and even unlearned, | 1:52:51 | |
| will all be dreaming, | 1:52:53 | |
| what will my funeral be like? | 1:52:57 | |
| Will I be able | 1:53:02 | |
| to have a decent-paying job? | 1:53:06 | |
| Will I be able to grow up | 1:53:14 | |
| and feel good on the inside | 1:53:19 | |
| because I have a friend | 1:53:24 | |
| who looks different from me? | 1:53:26 | |
| I close with this story. | 1:53:36 | |
| There was a woman, since we always use men. | 1:53:38 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 1:53:43 | |
| She died. | 1:53:46 | |
| And she was visited by an angel. | 1:53:53 | |
| And that angel took this woman | 1:53:58 | |
| to one side of the universe to a kingdom. | 1:53:59 | |
| And there in that kingdom, | 1:54:06 | |
| this woman saw a huge banquet table | 1:54:09 | |
| extending the length of this hall. | 1:54:13 | |
| And she saw all of these fine delicacies of life. | 1:54:19 | |
| There was Italian and French | 1:54:23 | |
| and Russian and Chinese and Japanese | 1:54:25 | |
| and soul food. | 1:54:29 | |
| There was even vegetarian food. | 1:54:31 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 1:54:36 | |
| The food was so good, in fact, | 1:54:40 | |
| that your tongue would beat your brains out | 1:54:41 | |
| trying to get to it. | 1:54:44 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 1:54:45 | |
| And the woman noticed something a little strange. | 1:54:47 | |
| The people. | 1:54:53 | |
| There was little mobility. | 1:54:57 | |
| They were frail | 1:55:00 | |
| and there was no laughter and joy in the air. | 1:55:01 | |
| And the woman asked the angel, | 1:55:04 | |
| "Why, with all of this delicious food, | 1:55:05 | |
| the people seem to be so unhappy." | 1:55:10 | |
| And the angel said, "There's but one law | 1:55:15 | |
| in the entire kingdom." | 1:55:17 | |
| Well, the angel quickly took her off to another kingdom | 1:55:22 | |
| on the other side of the universe, | 1:55:25 | |
| and there she saw the same banquet table, | 1:55:26 | |
| but I have you to know the people were very different. | 1:55:30 | |
| There was mobility. | 1:55:34 | |
| There was forward-moving progress. | 1:55:36 | |
| There was laughter | 1:55:39 | |
| and there was joy and excitement in the air. | 1:55:40 | |
| And, of course, this puzzled the woman, | 1:55:43 | |
| and she asked the angel, | 1:55:45 | |
| "What is the difference in the two kingdoms?" | 1:55:46 | |
| And the angel said, | 1:55:50 | |
| "There is but one law | 1:55:53 | |
| in the entire universe." | 1:55:55 | |
| The woman was extremely puzzled by this time. | 1:55:59 | |
| And the angel noticed and said, "I'll tell you. | 1:56:03 | |
| The law is simply this. | 1:56:07 | |
| You must use the utensils | 1:56:09 | |
| provided by the management." | 1:56:11 | |
| And that was it. | 1:56:15 | |
| But these utensils, I have you to know, | 1:56:17 | |
| they were 10-feet long, | 1:56:19 | |
| 10-feet forks, knives, and spoons. | 1:56:22 | |
| And angel went on to say, you see, in that first kingdom | 1:56:26 | |
| where the bodies were frail | 1:56:29 | |
| and there was no laughter and joy and no progress, | 1:56:31 | |
| these people were taking these 10-feet utensils | 1:56:34 | |
| and they were feeding themselves | 1:56:37 | |
| and they were literally starving to death. | 1:56:39 | |
| But I have you to know that in that second kingdom | 1:56:42 | |
| where there was forward-moving progress, | 1:56:45 | |
| where there was laughter and joy and peace, | 1:56:47 | |
| they were taking these utensils | 1:56:49 | |
| and reaching across the table, | 1:56:51 | |
| and they were feeding each other. | 1:56:53 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:56:55 | |
| And so whatever separates you from your fellow man or woman, | 1:57:08 | |
| whether it be race or creed or ideology or religion, | 1:57:12 | |
| I tell you today, | 1:57:17 | |
| you've got to reach across those superficial barriers | 1:57:19 | |
| and start feeding each other. | 1:57:22 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 1:57:25 | |
| And as you do that, your life will be a more fulfilled life, | 1:57:35 | |
| and when you pass on, people will say, | 1:57:40 | |
| there lived a man or woman, a boy or a girl | 1:57:43 | |
| who cared enough out of her or his own loins | 1:57:48 | |
| to reach across | 1:57:53 | |
| and feed another. | 1:57:56 | |
| Walk together, brothers and sisters. | 1:58:00 | |
| Don't you get weary. | 1:58:03 | |
| Struggle together, brothers and sisters. | 1:58:05 | |
| Don't you get weary. | 1:58:08 | |
| Pray together always, children. | 1:58:10 | |
| Don't you get weary, | 1:58:14 | |
| but hold on and keep hope alive | 1:58:15 | |
| as you're moving together, children. | 1:58:18 | |
| Don't you get weary. | 1:58:21 | |
| Work together, children, | 1:58:24 | |
| and love together, children. | 1:58:27 | |
| Don't get weary. | 1:58:28 | |
| Because one day there's gonna be a great camp meeting | 1:58:30 | |
| in our promised land. | 1:58:33 | |
| Peace. | 1:58:35 | |
| (congregation applauding) | ||
| - | I would take the liberty to call her Bernice | 1:59:21 |
| for I'm a contemporary of your father's. | 1:59:25 | |
| - | All right. | 1:59:27 |
| - | Her father so inspired so many of us. | 1:59:29 |
| We did some spectacular things in small places. | 1:59:35 | |
| I can remember living in a small town, | 1:59:39 | |
| teaching school and pastoring a church. | 1:59:43 | |
| I was so inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. | 1:59:47 | |
| that I carried a petition around to desegregate the schools | 1:59:51 | |
| in the county in which I was teaching. | 1:59:55 | |
| And I survived. | 1:59:58 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 2:00:00 | |
| I had the privilege of sitting around a table | 2:00:03 | |
| with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sr., | 2:00:07 | |
| Dr. Marshall Shepard Jr. and Sr., | 2:00:13 | |
| Dr. Thomas Kilgore, Dr. Gardner Taylor, | 2:00:16 | |
| and about 12 or 15 others | 2:00:19 | |
| when we got together the nucleus | 2:00:23 | |
| for the Progressive National Baptist Convention. | 2:00:26 | |
| It was my happy privilege | 2:00:31 | |
| to have shared with your mother a couple of years ago | 2:00:35 | |
| that she received a Stained Glass Window Award | 2:00:39 | |
| at Morehouse College, | 2:00:42 | |
| and I was inducted into the Morehouse Preacher Hall of Fame. | 2:00:45 | |
| And then about 18 months ago, | 2:00:51 | |
| the governor of the great state of North Carolina | 2:00:56 | |
| saw fit to make me Chairman | 2:01:00 | |
| of the Martin Luther King Commission | 2:01:03 | |
| for the state of North Carolina. | 2:01:05 | |
| And it is in that position that I'm here tonight | 2:01:08 | |
| and representing the Honorable James B. Hunt, | 2:01:12 | |
| and I present to you | 2:01:17 | |
| this Order of the Long Leaf Pine. | 2:01:20 | |
| And I read it, | 2:01:23 | |
| and I present it on behalf of the Honorable James B. Hunt. | 2:01:26 | |
| Reposing confidence in the integrity, learning, | 2:01:32 | |
| and zeal of the Reverend Bernice A. King, | 2:01:36 | |
| I do by these presents confer | 2:01:39 | |
| The Order of the Long Leaf Pine | 2:01:43 | |
| with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary, | 2:01:45 | |
| privileged to enjoy fully all rights | 2:01:49 | |
| granted to members of this exalted order, | 2:01:54 | |
| among which is the special privilege | 2:01:57 | |
| to propose the following North Carolina toast | 2:02:02 | |
| in select company | 2:02:06 | |
| anywhere in the free world. | 2:02:08 | |
| "Here's to the land of the long leaf pine, | 2:02:12 | |
| the summer land where the sun doth shine, | 2:02:17 | |
| where the meek grow strong, the weak grow strong | 2:02:21 | |
| and the strong grow great. | 2:02:24 | |
| Here's to Down Home, | 2:02:28 | |
| the Old North State." | 2:02:30 | |
| By the Governor, James B. Hunt Jr., | 2:02:32 | |
| January 15th, 1995. | 2:02:37 | |
| God bless you. | 2:02:44 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 2:02:45 | |
| - | I do wish to apologize. | 2:02:56 |
| I have a 8:40 flight back to Atlanta, | 2:02:58 | |
| and so I'm going to have to leave. | 2:03:00 | |
| I usually try to stay after, | 2:03:02 | |
| but I'm been moving this week from place to place, | 2:03:04 | |
| and I ask for your continued prayers, | 2:03:06 | |
| and I will continue to keep you in my prayers. | 2:03:09 | |
| God bless you and I love each and every one of you. | 2:03:11 | |
| (congregation applauding) | 2:03:14 |
| - | Let us unite our hearts in prayer. | 0:02 |
| Gracious God, we thank you for this day. | 0:09 | |
| We thank you for the opportunity where we come together | 0:15 | |
| in this place | 0:19 | |
| to remember and celebrate. | 0:22 | |
| We trust that as we remember, oh God, | 0:26 | |
| that you would give us a true understanding of remembrance, | 0:31 | |
| so that in the recollection of the past, oh God, | 0:37 | |
| we would be strengthened in the present and given hope | 0:41 | |
| and determination for the future. | 0:45 | |
| Today we celebrate those who gave their lives for the cause | 0:50 | |
| of justice and peace. | 0:54 | |
| We especially celebrate the life | 0:58 | |
| of our brother Martin Luther King Jr. | 1:00 | |
| Who gave his life for freedom | 1:05 | |
| because he understood that freedom | 1:07 | |
| is never voluntarily given to us. | 1:10 | |
| We pray for this land that continues | 1:14 | |
| to harbor racial prejudice and moral injustice. | 1:17 | |
| And in the words of our brother Martin, | 1:23 | |
| we pray that the dark clouds | 1:25 | |
| of racial prejudice will soon pass away, | 1:27 | |
| and that the deep fog | 1:31 | |
| of misunderstanding would be lifted | 1:33 | |
| from the fear drenched communities | 1:35 | |
| and that in not so a distant of time, tomorrow, | 1:38 | |
| the radiant stars of love and unity will shine | 1:42 | |
| over this great nation | 1:46 | |
| with all their soliciting beauty. | 1:49 | |
| We come confessing our own shortcomings. | 1:53 | |
| Forgive us Lord for the times when we have been complacent. | 1:57 | |
| Forgive us for our apathy. | 2:04 | |
| Forgive us when we rage war of violence through poverty, | 2:08 | |
| greed, and avarice. | 2:14 | |
| Today we pray that as we come, | 2:19 | |
| that you would receive our gifts | 2:21 | |
| as we rededicate ourselves to you. | 2:25 | |
| Accept our lives of and radiate them | 2:29 | |
| so that we can transform our lives into lives of services. | 2:32 | |
| So that as we serve each other, | 2:37 | |
| we can truly live your principle | 2:39 | |
| of loving you with all our hearts | 2:42 | |
| and our neighbors as ourself. | 2:46 | |
| Help us, we pray in your name, amen. | 2:49 | |
| Before Reverend Jameson Drake comes with the benediction, | 2:57 | |
| I would like to make one brief announcement | 3:00 | |
| and on behalf of Mr. Michael Hunt, | 3:03 | |
| the chair of this committee, we would like to express thanks | 3:08 | |
| to all of you for coming. | 3:13 | |
| We thank all those persons | 3:16 | |
| who have participated in this service | 3:18 | |
| to the members of the North Carolina School | 3:21 | |
| of Math and Science, to the modern Black Mass Choir, | 3:24 | |
| and to all you wonderful people | 3:28 | |
| who have joined us in this celebration, we say thank you. | 3:30 | |
| For those of you who would like to stay around for the time | 3:35 | |
| of fellowship, there will be a reception | 3:38 | |
| in the Divinity School in the alumni commons. | 3:41 | |
| Let's rise for the benediction. | 3:45 | |
| (heels stepping) | 3:52 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 3:58 |
| Almighty and gracious God, stir up our hearts. | 4:02 | |
| Let that spark of the divine that you have placed | 4:08 | |
| within us burst forth in flame. | 4:11 | |
| And so inflame our hearts with your love, | 4:16 | |
| that we may go forth from this place | 4:21 | |
| and the light shining within us may reach out to others | 4:24 | |
| and help kindle the flames that are within them. | 4:29 | |
| Open our eyes so that we may recognize all people | 4:35 | |
| as your children, beloved and precious, | 4:40 | |
| our dear brothers and sisters. | 4:45 | |
| And now we ask your blessing, oh God. | 4:49 | |
| May the blessing of God, of righteousness, | 4:54 | |
| the prince of peace | 4:59 | |
| and the Holy Spirit of love fill our hearts and minds | 5:01 | |
| and inspire our actions this day | 5:07 | |
| and forevermore, amen. | 5:10 | |
| Audience | Amen. | 5:13 |
| (organ music) | 5:18 | |
| (organ music) | 5:33 | |
| (organ music) | 5:48 | |
| (organ music) | 6:03 | |
| (organ music) | 6:18 | |
| (organ music) | 6:33 |
Item Info
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