By River Mitchell
@rivermitchell27
Sixty years ago – on June 14, 1964 – civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. gave the commencement speech at Springfield College to that year’s graduating class. King spoke to the students during a very tumultuous time in this country, in the middle of the civil rights movement. But the speech almost didn’t happen.
King was arrested on the steps of the Monson Motor Lodge in St. Augustine, Florida, when he asked to be served at a restaurant that only served whites. He was imprisoned three days before he was scheduled to appear. Springfield College president Glenn Olds faced pressure from both the FBI and the College to cancel the speech. But Olds decided to go through with it anyway.
Springfield College hosted its annual Martin Luther King Jr. lecture on Tuesday in Judd Gymnasia. The lecture has been held for the past 11 years to commemorate the day of King’s speech. This year’s discussion was titled “MLK, Patriotism, and the State of Our Democracy.” It highlighted the importance of King’s vision, and what it means today.
Moderated by Springfield College Vice President of Community Engagement Calvin Hill, the lecture was an interactive panel discussion that featured nationally prominent historians Mark Updegrove and Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine, and Springfield College Professor of Communications Marty Dobrow, a civil rights scholar.
The talk was broken up into six segments. Each covered a different topic about King and his impact on society and democracy. The panel discussion covered the arrest of MLK, his impact on the civil rights movement, the current state of the union and what younger people need to do to force change for the betterment of the country. Spencer-Antoine, a fellow at Harvard University, is the author of the book The Revolution Has Come: Black Power, Gender, and the Black Panther Party in Oakland. She talked about misconceptions about the Black Panther movement and highlighted some of the women who were leaders in the movement. Updegrove, a presidential historian for ABC News who has interviewed seven U.S. presidents, shared excerpts from a pivotal conversation between King and LBJ.
Dobrow has written extensively about civil rights and is working on a book about the topic. He was pleased with not only the turnout and engagement from the audience, but also enjoyed listening to what the other two panelists had to say.
“I think it was a great crowd,” Dobrow said. “I think the audience really seemed engaged [and] I thought my two co-panelists were just phenomenal. It was an honor for me to be up there with them.”
Dobrow’s book will focus on St. Augustine, where MLK was arrested before coming to Springfield College. Dobrow views the MLK commencement in 1964 as one of the best days in Springfield College history, and believes the college made the correct decision to stand up to the pressure from the FBI and bring the leader to campus.
“It would have been horrible to turn our backs on Martin Luther King,” Dobrow said. “I give former president Glenn Olds tremendous credit. I know it was a difficult decision [and] I know it was not something he did overnight. Ultimately he did the right thing and that’s something we all aim to do.”
There is only one statue on the Springfield College campus. It honors James Naismith, the founder of basketball. While Dobrow is fully supportive of that statue’s presence, he also believes the school should make room for a statue to commemorate what happened on June 14, 1964.
“I’m a huge hoops guy, I love basketball [and] I love the fact that basketball was invented here,” Dobrow said. “But this moment in Springfield College history is such a great moment. I think that would be great for recruiting, great for campus pride, and I think it would help to sort of tell the story to new generations of Springfield College students.”