Speaker: King's vision was part of an ongoing story

The Rev. Walter Fluker, director of the Leadership Center at Morehouse College in Atlanta, speaks in Sage Chapel, Feb. 4, during "A Celebration of Martin Luther King Jr." Robert Barker/University Photography

By Sheezan Bakali '01

"It would be a fatal error to simply understand [Martin Luther King Jr.] as an isolated genius who created out of nothingness the powerful vision of universal peoplehood. Much to the contrary, if we are going to really do justice to this 20th century American prophet, we must forever keep in mind that the dream for which he lived and died is not the unique property of any individual. Rather it is the ongoing story of dispossessed and disinherited people of every color and every clan on this globe who have had to deal with the madness of Western supremacy."

Delivering this message was the Rev. Walter Earl Fluker of Morehouse College, King's alma mater, at "A Celebration of Martin Luther King Jr." Feb. 4 in Sage Chapel.

The campus tribute was held weeks after King's birthday, Jan. 15, because so many in the Cornell community were off campus during the winter break, said Robert Johnson, director of Cornell United Religious Work, who officiated the service.

Making his first visit to Cornell, Fluker, a Baptist minister and director of the Morehouse Leadership Center, paid homage to the legendary civil rights leader in his speech, but focused on King's life as being part of a larger movement.

"[King's vision] arose long before the Montgomery bus boycott, long before he stood before the Lincoln Memorial ... long before his campaigns for open public accommodations and voting rights. The dream which propelled him on to the stage of history had germinated and grown in the hearts and minds of a proud people who simply wanted to be free," Fluker said.

And now, years after King's death, Fluker urged that the struggle not die.

"We must not be content simply with the legacy of the dream of Dr. King. ... We must not be satisfied with abstract conversation on the blackboard about how it was or used to be or even how it ought to be. ... The future of our communities depends on a new generation of men and women who dare to dream creatively and to call forth new realities based on those dreams," he said.

Johnson pointed out that Fluker's talk followed in Cornell's long tradition of support for the movement. Coretta Scott King, Jesse Jackson and Dorothy Cotton have all spoken on campus, and in Sage Chapel "Daddy King," Martin Luther King Sr., had preached as well, he said.

The celebration was sponsored by Cornell United Religious Work and by the Frederic C. Wood Jr. Endowment and included music from the choir of the Cornell Korean Church.