It was 26 years ago. on the steps of the Washington Monument in our country that a great American shared his dream. Dr. Martin Luther King jr. Spoke in a way that we dare not forget. I want to recall with you some of those extraordinarily powerful words. I say to you today my friends that in spite of the difficulties and struck and frustrations of the moment. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its Creed we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created. Equally. I have a dream that one day on the Red Hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of Brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi a desert State sweltering with the heat of Injustice and oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and Justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character, I have a dream. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama who's Governor's lips of presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls. Will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every Valley shall be exalted every Hill and Mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain, 's and the Crooked places will be made straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and All Flesh shall see it together. King's dream your dream my dream the American dream of equality among women and men has yet to come into full fruition indeed in recent years. We have felt the bitter return of bigotry. We thought we had dismissed. We now feel the Resurgence of racism in every aspect of Our Lives. Today we send some assault on the rights of women that is truly frightening. And in our land there is a swelling of the ranks of the poor that spells and eventual crisis for all of us. Here we are. It is 1989. And even in our academies it is still an issue for debate. Should we include in the curricula of our institutions? The realities of those who American Indians in some Nations say hold up at least half the sky they are women. It is still a matter of debate. Should we include in our curriculum those we call minorities perhaps to hide the fact that we folk of color are indeed the numerical majority in the world. DD's are times when tolerance not to mention respect for difference is particularly low in so many places the messages this people of color are in the category of other in relationships with white Americans in so many places the message is this the proper place for women is back in that kitchen and in so many places in our land the message is that the poor of that way either because they prefer it to being normal middle and upper class folk or their plight is for a host of other reasons their own fault. This is the content context rather with in which white supremacist continue to March and openly scream kill the niggers kill. The game's kill the Jews. This is the context within which certain individuals claim that they are protecting. Unborn Life by bombing abortion clinics. But before we talk about other folks houses and Stones, let us remember how many we've thrown last year on our very own campuses. It seems clear. Then that such a climate of intolerance. Demands that we in the academy redefined our sphere of inquiry to more seriously concern. o of our people such a climate also requires that we rededicate ourselves to analyzing and understanding where does this violent reaction to difference come from surely such a climate of bigotry requires that we re instill into our academic departments and programs the kind of activist component that would Place Educators and the educated among the leaders Against Racism against sexism against anti-Semitism against all forms of Oppression. And surely such a climate of bigotry requires that we redouble our efforts to bring to America's colleges and universities large numbers of all of God's children who make up our nation. And once we have the folks of our land among our students our faculty and our staff we've got to do all in our power to educate to graduate them. You and I and this very exciting place in the round you and I then must continue to work for our dream of colleges and universities as places where all individuals can assemble and debate and differ and learn. That is what we must do. We then must bring to our institutions of learning. Those who have the right to come not because of the color of their skin, but the sharpness of their mind and the content of their character. American higher education is still severely divided along racial and ethnic lines in our nation today. There are still 117 historically black colleges and universities. among them proudly moves Spelman College after all of the years that have past 35 since the Supreme Court ruled that separate and equal facilities were unconstitutional 26 years have passed since the court specifically mandated the desegregation of public colleges and universities and yet if it were not for the historically black colleges and universities who would have who would educate America's African-Americans We've got to say thank goodness for those institutions for while there are only 17 percent of all black students at the Spellman's and the more houses Fisk tougaloo. Rust, Hampton. While only 17 percent or institutions like Wilberforce and like Lincoln and like Tuskegee we educate and graduate. thirty-seven percent of all black students who ever graduate from an undergraduate Institution historically black colleges and universities then graduate the leaders of Black America Martin Luther King leontyne price, Jesse Jackson Marian Wright Edelman, Andrew Young 70 80 90 95 percent of professional Black America comes then from our historically black colleges and universities. There are those who challenge the existence of such institutions arguing indeed that they like women's institution should be dismantled. And yet when we look at Women's colleges in America what we realize is that they are the producers of 70 80 90 % of the scientists of the congresswomen of the teachers of the lawyers of the doctors of the oceanographers in the physicist surely we must struggle for a day when it is no longer necessary to call a college black or to limit its private enrollment to women but until that day comes we better be grateful for these institutions which in the face of intense racism and sexism in our land Indeed educate and graduate the women and the minorities of America. It seems to me that as we approach then the 21st century that one we keep talking about. The one we're convinced his only let 11 years away. It seems to me that as we approach that nextera. We must understand that a central question. In our colleges and universities is the necessity of understanding and respecting differences among us. In our colleges and universities in our society and in our world, I am convinced that either we learn to deal and to live with diversity or we will be unified in our destruction. I appreciate that learning to respect diversity is no simple task. indeed the incorporation of all of our voices into the academy is a very difficult task some would even say why do it very simply I respond because Excellence requires that we do so there's an enormously destructive myth that says that excellence in education is impossible. If there is diversity, you know, you let too many of them in and your standards go down all of this talk about women's studies who is going to remember the cannon white mayo and old as the cannon is I am convinced that excellence in education is only possible if there is diversity, I mean attention to diversity in the content of the curriculum and I mean diversity among the students The Faculty the staff who constitute an academic community Excellence in education than requires the incorporation of diverse perspectives diverse experiences in our curriculum. It seems to me that our students do need to confront to explore indeed to wrestle with Shakespeare and Robert Frost to but they should do no less with the works of Genoa JB of Maxine Hong Kingston of Jose Marti. Our students must learn to read and to understand Paula gun Allen or Native American women's realities. And yes the works of an an RJ Cooper and a host of 19th century black women Scholars and activists. If we claim that the ultimate mission of the academy is to understand human conditions. How dare we teach about the conditions of only Some Humans it is 1989 11 years before the new century. And even in the places that we call our most learned there are those who insist still or maintaining not simply intellectual but political and economic power by teaching the conditions of only a few excellence in education also requires. It seems to me that the very participants in the learning process bring to the academic table different ideas different perspectives different experiences. In terms of the need to diversify the faculties in the staffs at predominantly white institutions like McAllister. It seems clear to me that even the most Progressive of administration's it's going to have a difficult time bringing about a more multiracial and multi ethnic composition. But I'll tell you there is no president. No Dean no chair of a department who has got a better thing to do. We know that taking a business as usual attitude will never bring folks of color to our all-white faculties. And so we've got to be creative. We've got to demand of the white American teachers who are here that they struggle to bring the perspectives of women and folk of color into their classrooms. It seems to me that if black Americans can teach Shakespeare white Americans ought to be able to teach Zora Neale Hurston indeed white faculties are going to have to struggle to raise their own Consciousness to engage in the kind of study and human empathy that will permit them to teach if I can call on Words that my mother would have used That will permit these white folk to teach as if they have a touch of color. Anthropology has certainly taught me the power of empathy. And so I think that with hard work enormous hard work men can actually come to empathize with and teach the realities of women. With enormous effort with the use of empathy I think bit of white folk can come to understand and teach the realities of African-Americans of Native Americans of Americans of various Hispanic and Asian communities in terms of increasing the numbers of students of color that we attract and graduate American higher education has an incredibly long way to go but our ultimate concern must be the creation of communities of diversity in the academy. We talked so much about the university. Maybe we need to talk a little more about the diversity most immediately. We've got to seek to increase the number of black Hispanic and other minority faculty staff and students on our campuses and toward that end. We have got to affect every aspect of the academic environment. on the one hand There have been in our land 163 racist incidents on American colleges and University campuses during the past Academic Year. That is an indictment against the American Academy in the American people. But on the other hand in response to these outbreaks of blatant racism on many college campuses faculty staff and students are making real efforts to create a climate of Civility and to indeed bring about a more diverse community. Here you are at Macalester. Twenty years you celebrate of your minority program. I doubt very seriously that it has brought to this land this cold land the kind of diversity that really must be a part of a truly excellent liberal arts education for however many years that this institution has existed. I doubt very seriously that one can argue that women. women of all colors of all ethnicities of all sexual preferences of all religions and of all classes walk with the same degree of power as men do but you have done some things and as you celebrate the past 20 years and is my assumption that you are also recommitting yourselves to the struggle for diversity with equality for equal access and excellence in this institution. We've got to keep our hope. We've got to strengthen our efforts. So that one day is Martin Luther King said in the final lines of his speech at the March on Washington. So that one day we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children black and white Jews and Gentiles Protestants and Catholics. I would add women and men will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual free at last free at last. Thank God Almighty. We are free at last. Now to bring King's dream your dream and my dream into some reality. Means somebody's got to do some serious work. Who's going to do that work? I want to end by answering that question in using the words indeed a story. That was often told by one of my sheroes. her name Not only was but is Fannie Lou Hamer Fannie Lou Hamer would often reach a point in his speech when she wanted to respond to the question who's going to do this work to write this world of ours. Who is going to in the spirit of Sojourner Truth be the womenfolk who turn right side up this world that menfolk have got turned wrong side up. And Fannie, Lou Hamer would tell her favorite story and I want to tell the story because the last lines indeed respond to the question who in this world is going to finally bring the realization of that King dream to our Academy and indeed to our society. The story is about some very Brash kids who decided one day that they would trick an old woman and his kids are want to do they disrespectfully figured out how they could have some fun. Unimpressed by her wisdom they decided that they would put a question to her that she would be totally incapable of answering and so they huddled and they said yes, we got it you as the leader will go up to the old woman and you'll say oh woman. Oh woman this bird that I hold behind my back. Is it dead or is it alive? and if the old woman says why the bird Is dead then you release it and let it fly away. But if to the question the old woman says the bird is alive then you crush it. Convinced that she would not be able to answer this particular question correctly off. They went to find the old woman. And she and her graciousness agreed to have the question put to her. And so the kid the most arrogant of the little bunch of arrogant ones said old lady old lady. I've got this question. You must answer. Old lady old lady this bird that I hold behind my back. Is a dead or is it alive? And the old woman said why? It's in your hand. You see it's in your hands and it is in my hands. has to struggle for the victory genuine diversity in our Academy in our society and in our world I am finally by saying to you with all sincerity that I take the awarding of an honorary degree from this institution. quite seriously And I indeed intend to exercise all of my rights and privileges appertaining thereto. Thank you.