The Martin Luther King, Jr. commemorative program Wednesday night utilized the elements of song, dance, and speech to illuminate this year’s theme, “The Challenge and Power of Unity: Defining a New Movement.”
The 2004 MLK commemorative program was held Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Union Theater.
“This year’s theme calls us to action, and tonight’s program is to uplift and renew the hope that together we can change the world,” said Master of Ceremonies Brandon Smith
Teressa Breaux, an English and mass communications junior, said this year the MLK committee did a great job of bringing more diversity to its programming.
The program began with an invocation by Rabbi Barry Weinstein of the B’Nai Israel Synagogue.
“Having the Rabbi perform the opening prayer reflected this commitment to promoting cultural awareness,” Breaux said.
Keynote speaker Molefi Asante came to the stage as the highlight of the event, and spoke on Afrocentricity and its implications on society.
Asante is a professor in the Department of African and African American Studies at Temple University and author of 55 books.
Asante has been recognized as one of the most influential leaders of the last 15 years, and lives by his motto: “It’s not enough to know, one must act to humanize the world.”
Asante’s key focus in his speech was the distortion of Afrocentricity over the last 20 years.
“Afrocentricity is not Anti-Eurocentric,” he said. “It does not argue that you impose an African view on others, but rather that African people assume responsibility in learning about their culture and take an active role in their community.”
Asante pointed to a study in which African-American people ranked high in self-esteem, but extremely lower than other races in cultural esteem.
“We have many negative ideas and concepts about Africa,” he said. “And when history that is taught does not promote the contributions our people have made to education and technological advancements, it creates a dangerous atmosphere for both white and black people because the view we see is one-sided.”
Asante said the strength of the American society is that we are not one culture or specific to one ethnic group.
“American society has always been multicultural, and that respect for each others’ culture is the basis of unity,” he said.
Prior to Asante’s speech were musical selections by the LSU Gospel choir and two special presentations followed the prayer.
Chitia Daniels and Brandon Hudson, co-team leaders of the Performing and Creative Arts committee, presented the winners of the first through 12th grade poetry and art competition with plaques.
President of the Black Faculty and Staff Caucus at LSU Jermaine Watson read short biographies of the accomplishments of University students Tammy Sam and Jyric Sims, and presented each with the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award.
Watson said the two were given this award “in recognition of their outstanding accomplishments and contributions to the LSU family in the areas of campus involvement, academics, and cultural awareness.”
The MLK Dance Ensemble followed the presentations with a dance to American Idol winner Reuben Studdard’s “Fly Without Wings.”
After Asante spoke, Maurice Gipson, chairperson of the MLK Committee, called him to the stage and presented him with a framed MLK commemorative poster.
Gipson then challenged the audience to continue defining the new movement set forth and to use the words of Asante as fuel.
Gipson said the message Asante brought to the University was a message we needed to hear.
“Before we can take steps to being unified it is our responsibility to educate ourselves about all cultures, and as the flagship University of the state we should be leading the way,” he said. “One way we are executing this movement is by advocating our commitment to understanding and setting the foundation for this movement through MLK programming and events.”