By Kaleb Knowles
“We must all learn to live together as brothers, or we will all perish together as fools,” Martin Luther King Jr. said during his 1964 commencement speech at Springfield College. “No nation can live alone. No individual can live alone. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And so it is necessary, if we are to remain awake through this great social resolution, to activate a world perspective.”
In what may be considered the most important day in the campus’s history, alongside Naismith’s invention of basketball, King’s commencement speech shines brightly on a campus rich with history. A man who dedicated his entire life to fighting for The Civil Rights Movement and equality, whose impact seemed larger than life, almost improbably found his way onto Alden Street to deliver the commencement speech in June 1964.
Just days before King was set to arrive in Springfield, he had been arrested and jailed in St. Augustine, Florida. At one point, it seemed that his arrival at Springfield College would almost certainly never happen, and in many reports of history, it didn’t. However, a moment never forgotten in campus history arose when King was released from prison and made it to campus in time to deliver the commencement address on June 14.
Many records of this time only indicate King’s next journey afterward to Yale’s commencement on June 15, but in between the two, Springfield College never forgot the impact that one day had.
It was an environment filled with mixed opinions and aggression towards the decision to bring King to campus. Springfield College’s President at the time, Glenn Olds, was faced with a serious dilemma. Some students didn’t want to accept that King would be delivering the senior sendoff, and even the FBI was transmitting warnings to Olds, trying to interfere with the decision and prevent the speech entirely by painting King as the villain. Just his presence alone made one benefactor of the school tear up a sizable donation in front of President Olds.
Yet despite the countless reasons and pressure to rescind King’s invitation, Olds did just the opposite, welcoming King with open arms. It was a decision that would impact the future of Springfield College forever. Many years later, after the 13th president at Springfield College, Mary-Beth Cooper, arrived, so did a new tradition on campus.
“One of the things I do a lot of is think about history and progress,” Cooper said. “You don’t want to lose your history, and you don’t want to stay in your history because you want to have relevant careers and relevant majors and practical experience.”
In 2013, her first full year on campus, President Cooper started the Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture and began to coordinate with her staff about ways to keep the legacy and fight for the social justice that King brought, relevant to today’s society.
“And so that really began. Let’s continue to look at social justice issues every year and keep that lens alive,” Cooper said.
The panel has brought many thoughtful conversations to Alden Street, and that will continue next Monday.
Now into its 13th edition, the Division of Campus Life and Community Engagement is ready to host and honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. at Springfield College again. On March 9, at noon in the Dodge Room of the Campus Union, another panel is set to take place. This year’s panel focuses on a topic maybe more important now than ever before, with the current geopolitical issues in mind. Titled the “Black and Jewish Reconciliation: (Re)Building the Bridge,” the discussion is going to be based on exploring the history of the Black-Jewish alliance during the Civil Rights Movement, and how it still remains relevant today.
The program features two guest speakers and a moderator. Avi Dresner, the son of one of the most arrested and famous rabbis of the Civil Rights Movement, Israel “Sy” Dresner. As a filmmaker and journalist, Dresner has dedicated his life to bringing people together and highlighting the mutuality between Black and Jewish people, just like his father.
“Those who do know history can repeat the good parts,” Dresner said. “The Black and Jewish alliance is one of the parts that’s worth repeating.”
Dresner believes discussions like the one coming up during the MLK lecture are the most pivotal in making change in today’s society.
“Success to me looks like a chessboard,” Dresner said. “If I look out on the stage and I see black and white, that’s success because that means we are together.”
The second guest speaker for the lecture is Anthony Hill, PhD, a tenured professor of social work at Springfield College. He earned his bachelor’s degree on Alden Street and continued on his educational journey all the way to a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts. Hill brings relevance to the conversation as well as a clergyman and Senior Pastor from the Baptist Church of Christ in Springfield.
“I always knew when being raised by my grandmother that I wanted to be a resource to help people,” Hill said. “I wanted to be a source of help, a source of healing. I was very keen growing up with police brutality and saw how the world operated differently.”
As a black man growing up in the Springfield area, Hill brings perspectives not only of himself, but of so many peers around him as well.
Catharine Cummings, a chaplain in the Office of Spiritual Life at Springfield College, will moderate the panel. Cummings has been a reverend at many local churches in the Springfield area and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree in Womanist Preaching at Memphis Theological Seminary, in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture continues to be one of the most relevant events on campus each year. A lot of work is put behind the scenes in assembling both the guest speakers and the topic for the conversation. This year, the program examines how race, ethnicity, gender and class continue to shape the world.
Outside of the event, members of the Springfield College library will have a display of the history of the 1964 commencement. Images of King delivering the speech, as well as him walking on Alden Street, will be out for people to see. There are quotes that he shared with the people of that class, and even letters between him and former President Olds, thanking King for delivering his commencement. The display will be directly outside the Dodge room for people to look at before and after the event.
The goal of the event is to bring the Springfield College students, faculty, and community together, people of all backgrounds, and continue to learn about the ongoing battle that Martin Luther King Jr. fought for and the legacy he left behind.
Photo courtesy of Springfield College Archives