乐播传媒

As debaters from 乐播传媒 and Morehouse colleges made clear on MLK Day, discussing Martin Luther King鈥檚 dream raises more questions than it answers.

鈥淜ing didn鈥檛 want to change people, he wanted a better society,鈥� said Morehouse sophomore Rami Blair, who went on to quote King鈥檚 own words: 鈥淭he law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me.鈥�

Representing the opposition, Blair and Morehouse junior Curtis O鈥橬eal argued against the day鈥檚 motion: 鈥淭his house believes King鈥檚 Dream is unattainable.鈥�

Yet the core of the Jan. 20 debate was not so much whether King鈥檚 dream was unattainable, but what the dream was to begin with. The teams sparred over the definition of the dream and what King meant when he wished that his children 鈥渘ot be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.鈥�

The Morehouse debaters pointed out that King was, in Blair鈥檚 words, a 鈥減ractical optimist,鈥� not the radical idealist many perceive him to be. The dream was to create equality of opportunity under the law 鈥� not a color-blind utopia.

乐播传媒’ Brooks Quimby Debate Council team supported the motion, arguing that the oppression within U.S. education, economic and criminal justice systems makes true equality impossible.

Represented by Stephanie Wesson 鈥�14 of Mount Vernon, N.H., and Shannon Griffin 鈥�16 of Philadelphia, the 乐播传媒 team maintained that the dream was an idealized vision of a U.S. in which race no longer matters.

The annual tradition of the Reverend Benjamin Elijah Mays Debate honors the man who is at the center of the historic friendship between 乐播传媒 and Morehouse.

Former captain of 乐播传媒鈥� debate team, Mays 鈥�20 became the president of Atlanta鈥檚 historically black Morehouse College in 1940. He was a national figure in the civil rights movement as a theorist and as spiritual adviser and friend to King, who graduated from Morehouse in 1948.

Jan Hovden, 乐播传媒 professor of rhetoric and director of debate, explained that the day鈥檚 motion was intentionally provocative in order to illustrate the power of “the spoken word above that of violent revolution.鈥�

Professor Kenneth Newby, director of Morehouse鈥檚 forensics program, emphasized the importance of such cultural and intellectual exchange. 鈥淲e consider 乐播传媒 College a true friend of Morehouse College.鈥�

The debate was in keeping with themes presented by that morning鈥檚 keynote speaker Gary Younge. An award-winning journalist and author, Younge argued that King was far more complex and polarizing than history tends to remember.