Kevin Powell, an activist and journalist who speaks out for racial equality, delivered Elon’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative address Wednesday, Jan. 10 in Whitley Auditorium on campus. Details...
Powell urged audience members to promote civil rights and racial equality in their own lives. He said America has long been a multicultural nation and urged current and future generations to embrace that heritage.
“I submit that America has always been multicultural,” Powell said. “There were Native American people here first….The problem was that there was a notion that one group was superior to others.”
The civil rights movement was started by black Americans, but it affected the lives of every American, Powell said, including homosexuals and the disabled community. America is at a crossroads in its history now, Powell said, as many of the gains that were made, such as affirmative action and voting rights, are being threatened.
“There have been attacks on affirmative action. The state of Michigan this past November dismantled the program. I know a lot of people over the past 20 or 25 years have said affirmative action is reverse racism, it’s about quotas. I go to colleges and universities all over this country….Most campuses are not diverse at all. Not even close.”
Martin Luther King “was an incredibly humane human being” who never advocated retaliation against those who perpetrated violence in the name of racism, Powell said. King was also a patriot for speaking out when his country was wrong.
Powell also praised Wesley Brewer, a 7th-grader at Turrentine Elementary School in Burlington, the winner of Elon’s Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Essay Contest. Brewer, who shared his winning essay with the audience, and other students like him embody the vision that King had for a racially unified America, Powell said.
“It was empowering to hear you come up here and speak,” Powell said. “That was part of Dr. King’s vision…this is not just a black thing, this is not a white thing, this not a Latino thing, this is a human thing. For that young man to come up hear and write an essay that talks about that—we need to multiply Wesley by about a million people.”
Powell has written seven books, including his latest titled, “Someday We’ll All Be Free,” which features essays on the 2004 presidential elections, the September 11 tragedies and Hurricane Katrina.
Currently, Powell is producing a series of town hall meetings across America called the State of Black Men Tour, which will visit approximately 25 cities. The tour will culminate with “Black Men in America…A National Conversation,” in June in New York City.
Powell was raised in a single-mother household in Jersey City, NJ. He overcame poverty to attend Rutgers University, where he participated in student-organized efforts to end apartheid.