Boykin urges everyone to turn King's dream into action

Keith Boykin recalled his days at Harvard Law School with Barack Obama, a time when Boykin said he and fellow law school students pushed for more diversity in the faculty ranks at the traditionally Caucasian institution.

CARRYING THE TORCH: Keith Boykin, keynote speaker for EMU's Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration, addresses a sold-out crowd at the President's MLK Luncheon in the Student Center Ballroom Jan. 18. Boykin urged the audience to all take action to carry forward the slain civil rights leader's dream.

Sit-ins and protests, and even chasing after a dean, eventually led to definable change, a story that was in lockstep with the theme for Eastern Michigan University's Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Jan. 18. "The Dream: [Insert Name Here]" was this year's theme, which was a call for all individuals to take action to forward King's dream.

"Knowing the right thing is not always the same as doing it," said Boykin, before a packed crowd in the Student Center Auditorium. "I'm here to talk to you about the right thing to do."

If King were alive today, Boykin stressed that the slain civil rights leader would have become involved in the recovery efforts in Haiti, scolded the federal government after its sluggish response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and fought to wipe out poverty and AIDS.

"It is easy for us to forget that people are dying in Haiti. It is easy for us to forget there is poverty around the world," said Boykin, a TV host, editor and author. "I'm here to call you out to act."

Boykin's keynote, "Reaching Dr. King's Dream in the Obama Era", touched on "speaking truth to power," standing up to authority and overcoming fear, and taking personal accountability. He reminded the audience that King was "a rebel "and a rabble rouser, not the milquetoast, commodified caricature that has been marketed as a person of peace."

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