When newly elected Sen. Angus King, an Independent from Maine, was preparing to move into his office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in 2013, he was offered a choice of desks. The one King picked is big and broad, with slightly curved legs that square off in an angle at the top, interrupting its otherwise perfectly rectangular shape, and end in an almost claw-like foot. 

The legs are distinctive but even more so is the desk’s rich legacy, having served as the desk of Edmund Sixtus Muskie ’36 during his time in the U.S. Senate.

The desk was command central as Muskie was working on landmark legislation, including the Clean Air and Clean Water acts, the latter of which will have its 50th anniversary this fall. Muskie chaired the Senate Subcommittee on Environmental Pollution, a role that famously earned him the nickname “Mr. Clean.” 

“There was no question in my mind this was the right choice,” King says. “If you’re ever given the option to use Edmund Muskie’s desk, you take it!”

And other Maine politicians have done exactly so: When Muskie left the Senate in 1980, after more than two decades, to become Secretary of State to President Jimmy Carter, his former assistant from the early 1960s, George Mitchell, then a federal judge in Maine, was appointed to fill Muskie’s seat in the Senate. King says Mitchell took the Muskie desk as well.

Then, when Mitchell left the Senate in 1995 and was succeeded by Olympia Snowe, she moved the desk into her office. At Muskie’s memorial service in 1996, Snowe described coming to Washington in 1979 as the new congresswoman from Maine and being touched by Muskie’s kindness and grateful for his advice. “We were congressional colleagues for only a year and a half, but our friendship lasted throughout the years.” 

The furnishings and decor around it changed — Muskie liked to hold forth from behind the desk, with visitors grouped around it in chairs, while Snowe was typically pictured in her office sitting side by side with guests in more elegant striped gold and red high backed chairs — but the desk of the senators from Maine remained the same. 

The parties did not though. As was Muskie, Mitchell is a Democrat but Snowe is a Republican. 

“This desk’s bipartisan (now tripartisan!) history is one of my favorite features,” says King. “It’s a reminder that I stand on the shoulders of giants who made it their habit to work across party lines to deliver results for our state and our nation. I’m humbled by the legacy of accomplishments left behind by the leaders who came before me.”

Muskie, who died in 1996 just shy of his 82nd birthday, would have turned 108 this week, on March 28. (Late March birthdays are another thing the two former governors of Maine have in common: King turned 78 on March 31). Muskie grew up the son of immigrants in Rumford, where his father was a tailor, before arriving at �ֲ���ý, conscious of his lack of wealth initially and needing to work his way through college, like many of his classmates during the Depression. By the time he graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1936, he was class president and a skilled and confident debater.

In mid-March, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine raging, King, an adroit user of Instagram who writes often soulful captions for his own photography, posted a sunlit shot of his office, showing part of the desk, his bust of Lincoln, and the rich red walls behind it, hung with paintings by Maine artists (Marguerite Robichaux and Linden Frederick). The scene, and the moment in time, prompted him to share some perspective in light of the Ukrainian crisis. “In difficult times like these,” King wrote on the post. “I find temporary refuge in history.” 

That refuge included considering Muskie’s feat in leading Maine, and the nation, “into the environmental era,” King wrote, noting that Muskie managed the first Clean Water Act to a “unanimous (!) vote in the Senate. And came to embody the idea of integrity in politics.”

There’s no question that Muskie worked at this desk as he crafted the Clean Water Act, King says. “Looking back on it, the fact that Muskie got this bill enacted into law speaks to his relentless perseverance. He held hearing after hearing on this subject, drawing from both scientific data and his personal experiences in Rumford to advocate passionately for the importance of clean water in every community across the country.”

Rumford sits on a bend of the Androscoggin River, so in his youth, Muskie could literally see (and smell) the water and air pollution generated by the small city’s pulp and paper mills.

“He eventually wore down his opposition, and the bill passed the Senate unanimously,” King says. “When I’m working on the toughest issues we face and feel like I’m at an impasse, Muskie’s example reminds me to keep going.”

It’s a true working desk then, not ostentatious. It’s solid. Like Muskie. An aide once said that ‘sham and pretense grate on him like sandpaper.’”

Some mysteries remain about the desk. No one seems to know exactly what kind of wood it is, but King says that “it’s from the early 20th century, and had been in the Russell Senate Office Building originally.” It’s double-sided, so it could accommodate two people sitting across from each other, with a footrest for each. “I’ve never used the desk for that purpose,” King says. “So I get extra room to stretch out my legs.” (A nice feature when you’re 6-foot-2.)

It’s a true working desk then, and despite the turn of its legs — which make it easy to identify in historic photos, like the one of Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan making her way into Snowe’s office for a meeting when she was still a nominee — it is not ostentatious. It’s solid. Like Muskie, who The New York Times described in its obituary as “above all, a creature of the Senate. A blunt man, with a hair trigger temper that detonated often, he nonetheless became one of the Senate’s most influential members. An aide once said that ‘sham and pretense grate on him like sandpaper.’”

Mitchell was stunned and intimidated. “I couldn’t control the shaking of my legs even though I was sitting down.

Note the mention of the temper, which was legendary. The first time George Mitchell glimpsed the desk that would eventually become his, he also saw the temper. On March 26, 1996, Mitchell shared his memory as part of the many Congressional memorial tributes to the former senator from Maine. Mitchell recalled going for an interview for a job as an assistant in Muskie’s office. He was fresh out of law school. Mitchell had been advised to prepare a memorandum on the legal aspects of an issue that was being considered by the Senate.

“I thought the memo was pretty good, but unknowingly I had made a huge mistake,” Mitchell said. “I reached a conclusion that was the opposite of the Senator’s. I had never met him but he didn’t bother with any small talk. Within minutes of our introduction, he unleashed a ferocious cross-examination. He came out from behind his desk, he towered over me, he shook his finger at me and he took my memo apart, line by line.”

Mitchell was stunned and intimidated. “I couldn’t control the shaking of my legs even though I was sitting down. I tried as best as I could to explain my point of view and we had what you might call a lively discussion. As I left he said, ‘The next time you come in here, you’ll be better prepared.’ That’s how I learned I’d been hired, and I sure was better prepared the next time.”

King says he tells visitors about the desk’s history, “often and eagerly, without any prompting.”

A few years ago, King ran into Ned Muskie, the youngest of Ed and Jane’s Muskie’s five children, in Washington, D.C., and invited him for lunch in the Senate dining room. “I said that would be incredible,” Ned Muskie says. “Because I have wonderful memories of Dad taking us there. Back then, Dad was like a rock star, even among other senators. They all wanted to interact with Dad. So our lunches would be interrupted by people like Hubert Humphrey or Sam Nunn.”

But before King and Ned Muskie went to lunch, they stopped by King’s office. Muskie remembers King telling him, “I have something special to show you. And sure enough, it was the desk.”

It was set at a different angle — “Dad had it in a very conventional way, at the end of the room” — but Ned knew it immediately. “Hell yeah,” he says. He told King about his own history with the desk. 

“I knew this desk from when I was a very little boy. Very similar to John-John Kennedy, who would sit on the stretcher below his father’s desk, I also did the same thing. Dad would be on the phone and I’d crawl under the desk. I’d tickle his feet or do something silly like that, so I have very fond memories of the desk.” 

Ned’s four siblings would sometimes join him in play under and around the desk while his father worked. “How Muskie ever got the Clean Water Act passed with kids darting back and forth, I’ll never know!” King says.

King considers the desk timeless. “Not only because it’s been passed down from senator to senator, but because the impact of the work done at this desk still affects Maine people today. Just look at the Clean Water Act: Mainers depend on the ocean, lakes, and rivers to live and work. Without this historic legislation, our waterways would not be the same today.

“Thankfully, Maine had Ed Muskie working for us. So yes, the desk is timeless. It’s a piece of history, and I’m honored to continue the tradition.”

Thanks to Maine’s U.S. senators, �ֲ���ý’ just-launched project is on the national radar.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins

On Sept. 7, Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King announced that the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services had awarded a quarter of a million dollars to the Diverse BookFinder, a portfolio of resources for finding diverse children’s picture books.

was disseminated nationally by The Associated Press.

The IMLS National Leadership Grant, the agency’s second grant to the �ֲ���ý project, will support enhancements to the DBF’s and the further development of a tool for analyzing diversity in book collections.

U.S. Sen. Angus King.

“Libraries are repositories of knowledge, providing important educational resources for communities in Maine that help us all learn and grow,” Collins and King said in a joint statement.

The Diverse BookFinder, they added, will help “improve our understanding of the world and prepare students to live and thrive in today’s global society.”

The statement spotlighted the DBF’s educational and developmental value for children. The resource “furthers libraries’ efforts to foster intercultural competence and positive self-image among children and enhance their ability to succeed in our diverse world.”

“We commend �ֲ���ý for their efforts to advance this educational tool,” said Collins and King.

The grant, the senators also noted, will fund training opportunities for Maine librarians through the Maine State Library.

About a year ago, the IMLS gave the DBF a boost with a $20,200 “Sparks! Ignition Grant for Libraries.” Such grants provide early funding to experimental projects that may later be scaled up through the institute’s National Leadership Grant for Libraries. The “Sparks” grant supported the creation of the DBF website and searchable online database.

The IMLS supports libraries and museums nationwide with the goal of promoting innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic involvement.

Collins, Maine’s senior senator, received an honorary degree from �ֲ���ý in 2017.

Here’s how MLK Day 2016 looked — what was said and read, and what was acted, sung, and pondered — as the campus community and invited guests from near and far came together to work on the theme “Mass Incarceration and Black Citizenship.”

7:02 p.m., Jan. 17

The college’s MLK observance began with Sunday evening’s traditional MLK Memorial Worship Service in Gomes Chapel, which encompassed dance, music, and spoken word. The homily was delivered by the Rev. Peter Paris, author and professor emeritus of Christian social ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary.

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

8:20 a.m., Jan. 18

The day got an early start. Chris Petrella ’06, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, and Assistant Professor of Sociology Michael Rocque gave the day’s events and theme, “Mass Incarceration and Black Citizenship,” a solid foundation by presenting a whirlwind survey of pertinent issues.

Among the staggering facts and figures:

• By the end of 2014, nearly seven million Americans were subject to some sort of correctional supervision.
• The U.S. incarceration rate is the world’s highest. According to the , for every 100,000 people, the U.S. has 716 behind bars; the United Kingdom, 147; Canada, 118; and Norway, 72.
• From 1974 to 2014, the incarceration rate has skyrocketed — increasing fivefold.
• Convictions for drug offenses drove the increase. In 1980, federal prisons held some 4,700 individuals for drug offenses. In 2014, the number was 96,500.
• Racial disparities in imprisonment rates are striking. Just one white American out of 17 is likely to be imprisoned, while the rate is far higher among Latino men (one in six) and black men (one in three).
• One in 117 white women will be imprisoned vs. one in 45 Latina women and one in 18 black women.

In Gomes Chapel, just before the MLK Day keynote, Christopher Petrella ’06 discusses issues surrounding imprisonment. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

8:55 a.m., Jan. 18

The MLK keynote session started with remarks by President Clayton Spencer:

Particularly relevant to our topic today, Michelle Alexander argues in The New Jim Crow that the mass incarceration of young men of color, initiated by the war on drugs and carried through to the jaw-dropping incarceration rates of today, is simply the latest move in a highly adaptive system of racial exclusion that extends back to the earliest history of the nation….

We have to ask ourselves: At �ֲ���ý, even with our storied history — no, especially with our storied history — in what ways do our very own culture, structures, unthinking ways, and even conscious ways marginalize students and others of color whom we invite to be here and promise full participation?

And what are we going to do about it?

From left, President Clayton Spencer, U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, Associate Professor of History Joe Hall, and MLK Day keynote speaker Jelani Cobb. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

9:21 a.m., Jan. 18

In his remarks, U.S. Sen. Angus King recalled the 1963 March on Washington:

Fifty-two years ago, Americans marched to Washington’s great National Mall. … Those people came to Washington drawn by a radical idea — an idea that’s at the heart of the American experience, an idea that was new to the world in 1776, tested in 1865, renewed in 1963, and an idea still new and radical today in much of the world.

That idea is that all men and women are created equal.

Fifty-two years ago at that sacred place, Americans sent a message to their leaders and to the world: that the promise of equality of opportunity, equality before the law, equality of the right to freely participate in the benefits and responsibilities of citizenship, apply to everyone in a country, not just the lucky few of the right color or accident of birth.

This is what Martin Luther King meant when he said that his dream was deeply rooted in the American dream.

U.S. Sen. Angus King speaks during the college’s MLK Day gathering in the Gomes Chapel. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

9:41 a.m., Jan. 18

In his keynote, Jelani Cobb includes an acutely personal example of racial double standards.

“I’m old enough to remember the scourge of heroin when it first emerged and was largely considered a drug problem among black and brown people,” he said. Cobb’s oldest brother became addicted to heroin while serving in Vietnam and died of an HIV infection contracted while he was using heroin.

The surge of heroin use among people of color was, in part, “the basis for the beginning of the ‘War on Drugs’ and the mass incarceration that has accompanied it,” Cobb said.

Today’s conversation about heroin use is “staggeringly different.”

Cobb compared that era with recent comments from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. “He spoke movingly about ways in which drug abuse has ruined families and the ways in which it’s a cause for all of our sympathies and concerns.”

Hearing Christie’s remarks, Cobb noticed that today’s conversation about heroin use is “staggeringly different.” Now that heroin is a crisis “among young white people,” Cobb said, it’s curious that Christie did not say that “we should respond to this problem by locking more people up.”

Jelani Cobb delivers the MLK Day keynote in the Gomes Chapel. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

10:30 a.m., Jan. 18

The key question during a panel on “Global Accounts of State Violence and Identity” came from a student, and it came after we’d heard three senior anthropology majors talk about their thesis fieldwork, which, in each case, had brought them face to face with victims of trauma or physical violence.

The question: What’s it like to ask people questions about their grief, trauma, and pain? The answer, each senior said, is to focus on the person’s humanity.

Create spaces that allow kindness.

“You respond to the people as if one of your close friends had shared something difficult,” said Detmer Kremer of Nij Beets, Netherlands, who shared findings about the anti-refugee movement in the Netherlands and religious exclusion in Samoa.

“You provide opportunities to stop the interview, to halt the process, to create spaces that allow kindness to be part of the process.”

He was joined by Ashley Bryant of Medfield, Mass., who talked about anti-Muslim sentiment in American public schools, and Carly Peruccio of Manchester, Conn., who described women’s experiences during Morocco’s era of state-sponsored violence against dissidents, the “Years of Lead,” from the 1960s to 1980s.

A student listens to the panel discussion on “Global Accounts of State Violence and Identity.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen)

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10:31 a.m., Jan. 18

A poster in the “mouthpiece” display case announces the MLK Day theme.

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

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11:37 a.m. Jan. 18

“We are trying to make a change but we are the minority. We need you to pitch in as a community for the future generations. Whether you know it or not, you have the power to change the world, to make it safer for us people of color.”

With that statement, actor Mouamed M. broke the fourth wall in Schaeffer Theatre during the premiere of Something’s Wrong Here, a play written and performed by two youth groups, Maine Inside Out and the MLK Fellows.

A shift to “accountability and connection.”

Co-founded by Margot Fine ’03, Maine Inside Out collaborates with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people to create and share original theater. The Maine Inside Out cast members of Something’s Wrong Here comprised current and former residents of the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland.

“The goal is to shift from our current culture of punishment and isolation to one of accountability and connection,” explained Fine.

The MLK Fellows, sponsored by a Portland-based youth development program, contributed to the play by punctuating several scenes with original poetry, which elicited a cacophony of appreciative snaps from audience members, and reciting statistics on poverty levels, literacy rates, and the growing number of incarcerated people of color in Maine.

A scene from Something’s Wrong Here, performed on MLK Day. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

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11:39 a.m., Jan. 18

Visitors from high schools along with participants in MLK Day events walk toward Commons for lunch.

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

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12:03 p.m., Jan. 18

A selection of images from workshops that brought �ֲ���ý people and guests together for discussion and thought:

• “Race, Gender, Sexuality, and the Criminalization of HIV/AIDS,” led by Professor of Rhetoric Charles Nero;
• “Power and Complacency in American Incarceration and Our Community,” led by the Stringfellow Coordinators of the Multifaith Chaplaincy;
• “International Criminal Court: A Step Toward Global Justice?” led by the Africana Club;
• “Should Environmentalists Also Be Prison Abolitionists?” led by environmental studies lecturer Ethan Miller ’00.

(Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

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1:24 p.m. Jan. 18

Each MLK Day, several faculty, students, and staff read from texts that have inspired them. Here are brief video excerpts from six readings, in this order:

Jeremy Glover ’17 of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, reading from in Cleveland on April 26, 1967. “My mother was in attendance,” Glover said, “so it has a special importance in my life.”

Helene Sudac ’19 of Lake Forest, Ill., reading from “,” by James Baldwin (1962).

Caleb Perlman ’19 of Carlisle, Mass., reading from , by Thich Nhat Hahn (1995).

Joseph Hall, associate professor of history, reading from , by William Apes (1836).

Jessica Perez, assistant dean in Student Affairs, reading from , by Grace Lee Boggs (2011).

Jamil Drake, visiting assistant professor of religious studies, reading from King’s speech ,” delivered at New York City’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967.

2:40 p.m., Jan. 18

At an MLK Day workshop exploring how �ֲ���ý is adopting principles and practices of restorative justice, there was no shame in holding a stuffed cow called Stuart while you spoke.

In fact, sans Stuart, you didn’t speak. Under the rules of a “restorative circle” exercise, you spoke only when the cow came to you. Otherwise, you practiced active listening.

The group put the concept into practice during the session by talking about the at U.S. colleges and universities.

Leading the exercise were Robert Ibarra ’17 of Los Angeles and Katie Stevenson ’17 of Ewing, N.J. They get plenty of practice: as Mediation and Restorative Justice Fellows in the Student Life office, they have been leading restorative circles and related exercises around campus this year.

Their hope is to teach the �ֲ���ý community that responding to student misconduct can focus on redressing harm rather than on punishment.

“Trust the circle.”

The other workshop leaders, Carl Steidel of the Student Affairs office and psychology professor Georgia Nigro, are establishing restorative justice as an alternative approach in student conduct proceedings.

The circular discussion and “talking piece,” aka Stuart, are key. They enable “people to get to the stuff that they need to get to,” Steidel said. “Trust the circle.”

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

4:03 p.m., Jan. 18

This year’s traditional Benjamin Mays Debate gave student debaters from �ֲ���ý and Morehouse a chance to argue the value of police reform vs. prison reform.

Morehouse sophomore Best Uchehara supported the Government position, in favor of police reform:

“Ethnic minorities of America have been robbed of justice. Beaten mercilessly at the hands of law enforcement officials who are supposed to be just. Burdened by frequent targeting and racial profiling. Berated, with an unjust reality that lies contrary to what is promised in the Constitution. We, on the side of the Government, believe that enough is enough. We need reform.”

Morehouse College sophomore debater Best Uchehara argues for police reform. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

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4:25 p.m., Jan. 18

Michael Stone ’17 of Litchfield, N.H., and Keith Matier, a sophomore at Morehouse College, argued for prison reform.

Police are merely “gatekeepers” of the criminal justice system, said Stone. Solving mass incarceration means rehabilitating prisoners and reducing the stigma they face when they return to society. Ultimately, reform would mean lower poverty rates and greater employment.

Without reform, said Matier, being imprisoned will continue to create less-productive Americans. “When I see a prison…I say, ‘That is a place I do not want to go because I’m going to be relegated to social, economic, and political inferiority.”

Michael Stone ’17 of Litchfield, N.H., and Keith Matier, a sophomore at Morehouse College, discuss strategy to counter the Government’s position. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

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7:38 p.m., Jan. 18

An annual expression of pride and accomplishment for members of the African diaspora at �ֲ���ý, this year’s edition of Sankofa on MLK Day shared experiences of Afro-women internationally, linked by the theme of storytelling and friendship.

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

A scene from Sankofa's 2016 MLK Day performance. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

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1:48 p.m., Jan. 19

The day after MLK Day, Adam Blau ’18 of Pacific Palisades, Calif., and James Reese, longtime dean in Student Affairs who is a founder of the college’s MLK Day tradition, were among volunteers who read to Lewiston schoolchildren at the Martel School during the annual MLK Read-In.

(Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

(Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

(Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

Reporting by Leanne Ouimet, Doug Hubley, and Jay Burns.

Journalist Gary Younge offers the Martin Luther King Jr. Day keynote address, an analysis of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, in the Gomes Chapel at �ֲ���ý on Jan. 20. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

More than 50 years later, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom has become as much cultural touchstone as historical milestone.

Even as its context and complexities have faded from mass awareness, the March has evolved into a symbol of progress for civil rights. Epitomizing this perception is Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, his best-known address.

�ֲ���ý dedicated its 2014 Martin Luther King Jr. Day programming to the March, the Speech and their relevance today. And two speakers during the morning keynote session on Jan. 20 offered quite different perspectives on the events of Aug. 28, 1963.

As always, Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2014 at �ֲ���ý encompassed a rich schedule of programming that included Sunday evening’s memorial service and on Monday, a debate with Morehouse College, numerous workshops and panels, and the sold-out evening performance by Sankofa. Learn more:

• A slideshow of MLK Day 2014 events at �ֲ���ý.
• Video of the keynote session and the �ֲ���ý-Morehouse debate.
• The full schedule of activities.
• More about the day’s participants.
• Members of Sankofa preview their performance.
• A report from the debate.

An inspired and inspirational view came from someone else named King who happened to be on the scene in D.C. that day — U.S. Sen. Angus King.

�ֲ���ý President Clayton Spencer chats with U.S. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) during the college’s 2014 Martin Luther King Jr. Day keynote session on Jan. 20 in the Gomes Chapel. King offered reminiscences of the 1963 March on Washington. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

In remarks to about 400 people in Gomes Chapel, King said that hundreds of thousands of people came together in the nation’s capital that hot August day in the service of an “idea that’s important and still radical today: All men and women are created equal.”

A more granular view came from the keynote speaker, English journalist Gary Younge, author of a 2013 book that examines both the history of the March and the Speech, and their place in today’s context.

It’s true that the “Dream” speech marks a transition after which “the question of American apartheid is no longer alive,” said Younge. Yet, if legal segregation is dead, racism is alive and well, and the kind of profound systemic change that King dreamed of still eludes us.

The keynote session began with jazz by the Three Point Trio and a welcome by keynote host and Associate Dean of Students James Reese. Next, the college’s new dean of the faculty reminded his listeners that �ֲ���ý explicitly links education and service, privilege and obligation.

“Hand in hand with study and contemplation is informed and ethical action,” said Matthew Auer, who came on board as dean and vice president for academic affairs in July 2013.

With a rhetorical tip of the hat to the �ֲ���ý mission statement and Martin Luther King mentor Benjamin Mays ’20, Auer said, “the emancipating potential of the liberal arts is not a spectator sport.” That theme became a motif of the morning.

President Clayton Spencer introduced Angus King, former Maine governor elected Independent senator in 2012. King, who as a 19-year-old watched the March on Washington program from his perch in a tree on the National Mall, reprised his r, at which he represented the Senate.

“As it was once said of Churchill, Martin Luther King on that day mobilized the English language and marched it into war,” King said, “and in the process caught the conscience of a nation.”

Midway through the program, Acting Multifaith Chaplain Emily Wright-Magoon echoed Auer’s theme as she read pledges for action gathered from the audience at Sunday night’s MLK worship service.

Accompanying Wright-Magoon were Gospelaires Brittney Davis ’14, Megan Guynes ’11 and Courtney Parsons ’15, who sang a luminous “This Little Light of Mine” in three-part harmony. This welcome addition recognized the role of women in the civil rights movement generally, and specifically honored three singers present at the March: Mahalia Jackson, Camilla Williams and Marian Anderson.

Members of the Gospelaires perform during �ֲ���ý’ 2014 Martin Luther King Jr. Day keynote session. From left, Brittney Davis ’14, Megan Guynes ’11 and Courtney Parsons ’15. (Sarah Crosby/�ֲ���ý College)

Charles Nero, head of the MLK Day planning committee at �ֲ���ý and professor of rhetoric and American cultural studies, let on that keynote speaker Younge had originally planned to speak at �ֲ���ý during last year’s MLK events. But Younge, who writes for the British newspaper The Guardian, instead covered President Obama’s inauguration.

The timing was advantageous, though, because in the meantime Younge got a book published: The Speech: The Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Dream.

At �ֲ���ý, Younge painted a picture of events behind the March that, paradoxically, made it seem both inevitable and fortuitous.

For instance, local civil rights protests in the months before the March were cresting, all but necessitating some kind of grand national gesture. Quoting author Ryszard Kapuscinski, Younge cited the psychological tipping point where “a harassed, terrified man suddenly breaks his terror, stops being afraid . . . Man gets rid of fear and feels free. Without that there would be no revolution.”

“People don’t know when there’s history in the making. They just know they have to do something,” Younge added, referring to Sen. King’s earlier exhortation to seize opportunities for action when they appear.

Serendipity helped to define the March as well. King, for example, didn’t initially plan to use the “I Have a Dream” language, a staple of his repertoire, during the March. And yet, at the right moment, he set aside his notes and his lecturer persona, and preached those immortal words — perhaps persuaded by gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who sat nearby urging him on.

Occurring during an event designed as King’s introduction to the nation, the Speech had something for everybody. For patriots, roots in foundational American values; for liberals, appeals to the labor and peace movements. And African Americans could be supremely proud of this demonstration of black will and intelligence.

Appreciating the presenters during the 2014 Martin Luther King Jr. Day keynote session at �ֲ���ý College. (Sarah Crosby/�ֲ���ý College)

But today’s exalted view of King and the Speech differs dramatically from its perception five decades ago, Younge pointed out. In the 1960s, King was unpopular among whites, a sentiment exacerbated by his growing opposition to the Vietnam War, which many Americans supported, and to the capitalist system.

Younge concluded that the nation has mistaken a victory in the battle against segregation for a victory in the war against racism. By many measures, African Americans have gained little in terms of prosperity and well-being since the March.

It’s true, Younge concluded, that “King’s speech was an appeal to hearts and minds, the vision of a society in which race was not the defining and crippling factor that it once was, and to some extent still remains.”

“But he did not dream of better people. He dreamt of a better system.”

Associate Professor of Politics John Baughman welcomes the audience to the Maine gubernatorial debate held at �ֲ���ý on Oct. 27, 2010. Photograph by Rene Minnis.

With independent Angus King continuing to lead in fundraising for the U.S. Senate race in Maine, the Portland Press Herald turns to Associate Professor of Politics John Baughman for insight.

King raised $1.1 million in the past three months, more than double the combined totals of his challengers from the Republican (Charlie Summers) and Democratic (Cynthia Dill) parties.

One thing is clear, Baughman says: A much-anticipated campaign spending war for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe never materialized.

That’s because the major parties didn’t see the race as winnable after King, a former independent Maine governor, immediately jumped out to a big lead in the polls.

“If [the parties] don’t think the race is going to be close, they are probably going to put the money where they can make the most difference,” Baughman tells reporter John Richardson.

This winter, in collaboration with the Androscoggin Valley Regional Program for the Gifted and Talented, �ֲ���ý College hosts three presentations related to the 2010 election for Maine governor.

Former Maine Gov. Angus King opens the series with a discussion of his first Blaine House race at noon Tuesday, Dec. 8, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave. King will also discuss his legacy as governor, including the Maine public school laptop program that provides every public middle-school student with an Apple laptop.

King ran as an independent for governor in 1994 and was re-elected in 1998. Building his platform on bipartisanship, King won re-election by a substantial margin. He currently serves as the Segal Lecturer in American Politics at �ֲ���ý.

Two candidates for the 2010 Blaine House race continue the series: American Skiing Company founder Les Otten on Feb 10 and former Maine legislator and state Attorney General G. Steven Rowe on March 3.

Sponsored by the college’s Harward Center for Community Partnerships, all of the series events are open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6400.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Otten speaks at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 10, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives at �ֲ���ý, 70 Campus Ave. After leaving American Skiing Company, Otten worked as vice chairman and minority partner for the Boston Red Sox baseball franchise. In June 2009, he announced the formation of an exploratory committee to consider a bid for governor.

Democratic candidate Rowe speaks at 9 a.m. Wednesday, March 3, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave. As attorney general, Rowe tackled such major issues as lowering prescription drug costs, domestic violence, sexual assault, substance abuse and elder financial exploitation. He helped reform mortgage lending practices by taking on predatory lenders and by advocating for tougher consumer protection laws.

His leadership positions in the Legislature included chairing committees on economic development, research and development, and natural resources, and he was elected by his colleagues to serve as speaker of the House in his final term. He supported higher education by leading the passage of a $26 million capital improvement bond to improve Maine’s community colleges, promoted public health by leading the creation of the Fund for a Healthy Maine and led the passage of a $50 million Land for Maine’s Future bond issue.

The Androscoggin Valley Regional Program for the Gifted and Talented was developed in the 1980s in response to the needs of gifted and talented high school students who may benefit from differentiated programming. The program is a cooperative endeavor among school systems in the Androscoggin Valley Education Collaborative, comprising Lewiston, Auburn, SAD 52, school unions 29, 30 and 44, and �ֲ���ý College.

Former Maine Gov. Angus King Jr. visits �ֲ���ý College to address the theme “Protecting the Environment: Reflections on the Role of Leadership” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, at the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Co-sponsored by the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library and the , the annual Edmund S. Muskie Environmental Lecture is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6272.

King’s speech will link the environmental leadership of the late U.S. Sen. Edmund S. Muskie, a member of �ֲ���ý class of 1936 and the creator of such landmark legislation as the Clean Air and Clean Water acts, with the prospects for environmentalism under President Barack Obama.

King is a principal in , which has proposed a wind power development in the Oxford County town of Roxbury. He is of counsel to the Portland law firm of , teaches at Bowdoin College, and serves on the boards of, and advises, several Maine-based and international organizations, including the Public Broadcasting Service.

King served two four-year terms as Maine’s 71st chief executive, taking office in 1995 as the nation’s only independent governor. His administration revamped the state’s mental health and corrections systems, effected major improvements in the state’s service capability, and presided over the largest increase of lands in conservation in Maine history.

A particularly well-known King achievement was the creation of a nationally recognized program to provide laptop computers to every seventh- and eighth-grade student in the state. King was re-elected to the Blaine House by one of the largest margins of victory in Maine’s history.

Upon leaving office in 2003, King, his wife, Mary Herman, and their two children spent five and a half months in a 40-foot Dutch Star RV. Driving coast to coast and reaching the four corners of the Lower 48, the family covered some 15,000 miles.

King graduated from Dartmouth College in 1966 and earned a law degree at the University of Virginia Law School in 1969. He began his career as a staff attorney for Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Skowhegan. In 1972, he became chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Narcotics in the Washington, D.C., office of Sen. William D. Hathaway.

In 1975, he returned to Maine to practice law with the firm of Smith, Loyd & King in Brunswick, and began his nearly two-decade stint as host of the television show on Maine public television.

In 1983 King became vice president and general counsel of Swift River-Hafslund Company, an alternative energy development company based in Portland and Boston. In 1989 he founded Northeast Energy Management, Inc., a Brunswick-based company specializing in the development of large-scale energy conservation projects at commercial and industrial facilities in Maine. He served five years as the company’s president.

The Maine memorial service for Muskie is scheduled for 1 p.m. in the �ֲ���ý Chapel. The public is invited to attend.

Muskie, a 1936 �ֲ���ý graduate, died March 26 at age 81 in a Washington hospital following a heart attack. A funeral Mass was held March 30 in Bethesda, Md., and he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington.

The service will be conducted by the Most Rev. Joseph Gerry, Roman Catholic bishop of Maine. The eulogists will be Gov. Angus King, �ֲ���ý President Donald W. Harward, former U.S. Rep. and U.S. District Judge Frank M. Coffin, businessman and longtime Muskie supporter Shepard Lee, former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell, Sen. William S. Cohen and Muskie’s son Stephen.

Also in attendance will be members of Muskie’s family, including his wife, Jane; and members of Muskie’s 1936 �ֲ���ý class. Muskie had been planning to attend his 60-year reunion at �ֲ���ý in June.

Following the service, the public is invited to take guided tours of the Edmund S. Muskie Archives on the �ֲ���ý campus. The archives contains records of Muskie’s 32-year career in public life, from his days as a young Maine legislator to his service as secretary of state in the Carter administration and his campaigns for president and vice president.