Last week in the Hinson Campus Center, a commemoration of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King was held. Between 250 and 300 people gathered to pay honor to the life of Dr. King. Throughout the ceremony, the several speakers and participants maintained a feeling of solemn remembrance and unity.

Dr. Marion Winters, a professor at De Anza College and Head of the Office of Diversity was the first to speak at the podium, followed by De Anza College President Brian Murphy who welcomed students, focusing his speech on the setting of Dr. King’s life. He spoke deeply of the profound loss of a life who was committed to bringing people together. Murphy spoke of his own memories as a younger person losing Dr. King when he was beginning to draw the connections between the war in Vietnam and the war on African Americans and making the connections between imperialism and racism. Said Murphy, “It was not lost on us, that we lost him then just as we lost Malcolm X then, when he was himself making those connections.” For that generation, Murphy said, it was the signal of deep and abiding danger.

Carolyn Jones of Boston Scientific sang and conducted a gospel song with crowd participation; the crowd sang and clapped along matching Jones in volume.

Keynote speaker, Minister Keith Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque Number 26 in Oakland, opened his speech with a prayer, then explained that despite the titles in organized religion, his speech was in the spirit of unity. He said, it might seem strange for De Anza to invite a Muslim Minister to speak at a ceremony commemorating the birth of Dr. King, who was a Baptist Minister, but under God, we are one.

Muhammad went on to speak of a poem titled “A Dream Deferred”, written by Langston Hughes. In it, Hughes asks the reader, what happens to a dream deferred? He drew the correlation between a dream deferred, and the African American dream. As he said, the dream was freedom, justice and equality, and that justice above all must come about. He said the dream of justice had been deferred and in his closing remarks said, “Justice deferred is justice denied”.

Followed by Minister Mohammed’s speech, a panel discussion of De Anza students and faculty discussed current black culture, lamenting over the perceived complacency by so many minorities who, as one panelist said, should never be satisfied with what little progress America has made concerning equality. The ceremony ended in a spirit of unity, ultimately achieving the great goal of honoring a man and a legend.

John Capuchino is senior staff reporter for La Voz. Contact him at [email protected].