NEW YORK—Brooklyn Academy of Music hosted the 23rd annual Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Come Share the Dream” on Monday at the Howard Gilman Opera House.
The event was hosted by Brooklyn Deputy Borough President Yvonne J. Graham, and included remarks by Borough President Marty Markowitz, BAM President Karen Brooks Hopkins, and Dr. Elizabeth Nunez Senior Vice President and Provost of Medgar Evers College of The City University of New York.
The keynote speaker was Minnijean Brown Trickey, an original member of the historic “Little Rock Nine” that entered the then segregated Little Rock Central High School, thought to be one of the most significant events in the civil Rights movement.
Ms. Brown-Trickey began her keynote speech with a poem by Cyrus Cassells ‘Soul Make a Path Through Shouting’ which describes a walk into high school and is an apt opening to describe the courageous walk of nine African American teenagers walking into a segregated high school past 1,200 armed military and an angry mob in September of 1957.
“We simply wanted to go to school, we simply wanted what had been talked about for hundreds of years, but we had no access” said Ms. Brown-Trickey about her experience of helping to desegregate U.S. schools.
Ms. Brown-Trickey quoted Michael Eric Dyson author of the “The True Martin Luther King Jr.” when she said “Black progress toward the promise land King foresaw can’t be simply measured in material terms, we must also understand how black intelligence and creativity have flourished and been acknowledged since King died; A measure of how blackness has been celebrated and supported, or at any other time engaged or resisted, but rarely ignored. Black writers, athletes singer, actors and other creative figures have garnered prominence and exerted influence in America, a testament to King’s vision being closer being in spirit, at least, if not quite in the lives of the most vulnerable”
The program also included remarks by journalist Marcus Mabry, Rep. Anthony Weiner and musical performances by James Hall Worship and Praise and Brian Jackson.
The event was hosted by Brooklyn Deputy Borough President Yvonne J. Graham, and included remarks by Borough President Marty Markowitz, BAM President Karen Brooks Hopkins, and Dr. Elizabeth Nunez Senior Vice President and Provost of Medgar Evers College of The City University of New York.
The keynote speaker was Minnijean Brown Trickey, an original member of the historic “Little Rock Nine” that entered the then segregated Little Rock Central High School, thought to be one of the most significant events in the civil Rights movement.
Ms. Brown-Trickey began her keynote speech with a poem by Cyrus Cassells ‘Soul Make a Path Through Shouting’ which describes a walk into high school and is an apt opening to describe the courageous walk of nine African American teenagers walking into a segregated high school past 1,200 armed military and an angry mob in September of 1957.
“We simply wanted to go to school, we simply wanted what had been talked about for hundreds of years, but we had no access” said Ms. Brown-Trickey about her experience of helping to desegregate U.S. schools.
Ms. Brown-Trickey quoted Michael Eric Dyson author of the “The True Martin Luther King Jr.” when she said “Black progress toward the promise land King foresaw can’t be simply measured in material terms, we must also understand how black intelligence and creativity have flourished and been acknowledged since King died; A measure of how blackness has been celebrated and supported, or at any other time engaged or resisted, but rarely ignored. Black writers, athletes singer, actors and other creative figures have garnered prominence and exerted influence in America, a testament to King’s vision being closer being in spirit, at least, if not quite in the lives of the most vulnerable”
The program also included remarks by journalist Marcus Mabry, Rep. Anthony Weiner and musical performances by James Hall Worship and Praise and Brian Jackson.
