National journalist and syndicated columnist Roland Martin served as the keynote speaker in Harrison Auditorium on Thursday for the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Celebration titled “The Dream: No Longer His, Now Ours. “

Junior class president Wayne Kimball Jr. was the master of ceremonies for the evening, and began the program with a monologue in the voice of Dr. King as if he were here today. After comments from Chancellor Harold S. Martin Sr. and SGA President Syene Jasmin, the university choir sang a powerful rendition of black national anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

Senior Class Vice-President Sir Lawrence Conley introduced the speaker before he took the stage.

In his speech, Martin discussed the man whose famous “I Have A Dream” speech is commonly taken out of context.

He used playful and yet effective anecdotes to encourage young people to dream their own dream and said that people have to understand the context of the dream because they continue to get it wrong every year.

“The speech came from the ‘March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom’ and we tend to paraphrase the speech to highlight just the ‘I Have a Dream’ portion which was unprepared and spur-of-the-moment,” said Martin.

He also noted that African-Americans tend to talk about his dream and ignore the top two-thirds of the speech that talks about the economic inequalities in America and the check being stamped of insufficient funds at the bank of injustice.

“You can’t get to the dream unless you read the beginning,” Martin said. “If we want to talk about the dream you have to talk about the dream within the context of economics. I don’t waste my time talking about a dream, I deal with the nightmare because with a dream you are sleep, I deal with the reality where we are.”

Martin concluded by saying that people have to take action individually and must be the change they want to see.

“The issue for us has nothing to do with a program, the issue for us today has to deal with a individual decision as to what we will get involved in,” Martin said.

“If you don’t even bother to show up, why should they even speak up for you?” After the speech, there were presentations of appreciation for Martin from the Beta Epsilon chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. and the National Association of Black Journalists, of which Martin is the national secretary.

Senior Class President Katerra Riggins made the MLK scholarship presentation to its recipient, Janae Brown and Vice-President of Internal Affairs Valerie Dudley made the closing remarks.

Chancellor Martin said that he was very pleased with the manner in which the program was planned and executed.

“Our students’ involvement in the program and delivery was really exceptional. I really appreciated the ‘tough love’ message by Mr. Martin and he set the tone for students to be more engaged and focus on what makes a difference and embrace their dream now and make a difference; one small step at a time,” said Chancellor Martin.

Kimball Jr. felt that it was a very good program that was well attended by students and community members.    

Mr. Martin made a lot of key points that allowed people here to see the realistic view of ‘The Dream’.

He didn’t just talk about the good things; he also addressed the issues in our society that need to be addressed as a black race and as a society,” said Kimball.

• laporsha lowry