Author, lawyer and professor Randall Robinson spoke at Duke’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. commemoration yesterday and said education will drive the country’s continued progress on the civil-rights front.
“We will not be able to build a brotherhood until we can come to know and appreciate the full stories and histories of the world’s varied peoples,” Robinson said. “We certainly cannot build a brotherhood before we know our own.”
Robinson argued that even among blacks, the extent of African contributions to the world isn’t fully appreciated.
“What if you think you know your story when you really do not know your story, when you believe what you’ve been told when most of what you’ve been told has been mistold to you, and most of your story has not even been told at all?” he said.
The reality, he continued, is that Africa’s development at various points in history was more advanced than Europe’s and contributed to Europe’s in ways that remain unappreciated.
Sunday’s speech drew a near-full-house audience to Duke Chapel.
Duke President Richard Brodhead, helping open the ceremony, said the success of the civil-rights movement “remains a marvel” for having faced up to a massive contradiction between the country’s declared ideals and actual practices.
What “we commemorate today is that thing which seemed like it would never change was changed,” Brodhead said, identifying the key factor in the movement’s success as “the awakened power of a human community.”
King, he added, is singled out as a hero because of his “profound love of justice,” his ability to envision a better society, his ability to persuade people to share it and for his courage in pushing for change even at risk to his own life
Read more: The Herald-Sun – ACHIEVING THE DREAM
