Quote Unquote: Civil Rights Lecture 2024
This year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Lecture not only commemorated the revered leader but also highlighted an institutional milestone, launching the year-long 40th anniversary celebration of the college’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion. CDI traces its origins to 1984, when Alfredo Gonzales ’75, director of the college’s TRIO Upward Bound program for high school students, was appointed to the newly established position of director of minority affairs.
The featured speaker during the Monday, Jan. 15, event, held in Dimnent Memorial Chapel, was Hope Professor Emeritus John Yelding, a specialist in diversity in education who retired in 2019 but continues to be active at the college as a teacher and mentor. Presenting the address “Reflections on MLK, Civil Rights, and DEI at Hope College,” he considered civil rights issues in contemporary society and what King might think about them if still alive, and took the audience on a historical tour of CDI’s work and achievements and some of the challenges along the way. In keeping with the spirit of both King and CDI, he also called the audience to action.
“The issues that I believe [King] would call us to do battle with are obviously complex and loaded with politics, but I’m certain he would call us to action to do God’s work. I believe he would start by reminding us that problems get solved when we set aside our petty differences, and commit ourselves to work toward achieving goals that serve a greater cause. I believe he would remind us that we can and will do more working together than we could ever do individually, or by isolating ourselves in groups that serve only our own interest and focus on competition with one another rather than cooperation.
“I believe he would call us to the roots of our Christian faith and ask us in the most honest manner: What would Jesus do? I believe he would call us to unity and insist that we make a decision about whether we truly are who we say we are committed to being, or if we are only that kind of American when it’s convenient and doesn’t cost us anything…
What would Jesus do? I believe he would call us to unity and insist that we make a decision about whether we truly are who we say we are committed to being, or if we are only that kind of American when it’s convenient and doesn’t cost us anything…
“Yes, there is a lot of hate in our society and throughout the world today. Yet, I am hopeful. If you ask me why, I will tell you that I am absolutely convinced that there are far more good and caring people in our society today than there are those who make all the noise…
“How do I know this? Because I see it and experience it every day in my own community, on and off campus — and as I travel across the country. With rare exception, the people I interact with on a daily basis have never been more kind and gracious than they are right now. Despite all the noise that I hear in the media, people of a wide range of races, religions and, yes, even sexual orientations are very positive in their interactions with me and with others.
“So, I leave you encouraging you to both have hope and to accept and welcome your responsibility to spread hope in all we do. That’s who we are at Hope College. That is what we do, and that is our call to duty.”