ASU professor’s project upholds MLK’s legacy in political climate, society
Jan 18, 2021, 6:30 AM | Updated: 12:11 pm
FILE - In this Aug. 28, 1963, file photo, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, addresses marchers during his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. As civil rights leaders and activists gather Monday, Jan. 16, 2017, at sites across the country to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil rights leader's daughter Bernice King is encouraging Americans to fight for his vision of love and justice "no matter who is in the White House." (AP Photo, File)
(AP Photo, File)
PHOENIX – A spotlight has been placed on racial inequality over the past year and on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, one local scholar hopes further action will be spurred.
Arizona State University professor Dr. Neal Lester, who specializes in African American and Cultural studies, founded ASU’s Project Humanities program that focuses creating conversations that help people better see and understand diversity, inclusion and equity.
On Friday, Lester’s 10-year-old program was awarded an MLK Diversity Award from the Tempe Human Relations Commission.
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King’s legacy has been brought to light over the last few months amid the Black Lives Matter movement, pandemic and political climate.
“What we have witnessed over the last several months and the last week have been manifestations of the work that needs to be done,” Dr. Neal Lester told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Thursday.
Lester believes that can be done by revisiting Dr. King’s works, speeches and life.
With the understanding of what King stood for, it should be an opportunity to see that what we are experiencing today is not new.
Rather the inequalities, racism, and the idea of there being two Americas in which one is white and one is black, Lester believes that’s what needs to be understood before real progress can be made.
Following the Black Lives Matter movement that erupted in the streets across America in 2020, Lester denounced the idea of “gradualism”.
“We can’t just accept that somehow things will get better if we’re just patient,” Lester added.
“That was clearly not his [King’s] objective and I think that the urgency of now led people back to King after George Floyd’s murder, but people seem to have been cherry picking the more tranquil or accepting, sugarcoated view of King and his perspectives.”
On Monday, Lester will host a virtual event alongside Dr. Charles McKinney, professor of history at Rhodes College in Memphis. Their goal is to warn against the “cotton-candy version of King” that many Americans perceive rather than fully and more closely at the more radical King.
“We say this each year, what have we learned? Are we living the dream? And I think the issue though is if nothing else – before the murder of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter, we have to as a nation acknowledge that racism exists,” Lester said.
The free virtual event starts at 6 p.m. and will allow community members to share poems, parts of speeches or share other observations from MLK’s life and legacy moderated by Lester and McKinney.
