Former prof returns for keynote speech

The anticipation was breathtaking at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater Monday night, as a packed hall rustled, whispered and shook with song in preparation for a keynote address not soon to be forgotten. Children from University Elementary School lined the walls, members of the IU African American Choral Ensemble filled the space backstage and an audience exemplifying Bloomington's racial and cultural diversity jammed into whatever vacant house seats it could find. \nAmong the others sitting in the theater, Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan was there. IU president Adam Herbert sat with his wife, Karen, on stage right. Ivy Tech Chancellor John Whikehart offered opening remarks. Members of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners dotted the Buskirk's front rows. \nThe keynote speaker they were waiting for was Dr. Michael V.W. Gordon, a septuagenarian whose return to "sweet Bloomington" two years after his retirement from the IU School of Music faculty and as Dean of Students was heralded by a standing-room only crowd hanging on his every word -- spoken or sung. His remarks formed the crux of the community's capstone celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life and legacy, following a day of service in the greater Bloomington area. \nHe spoke of themes common to every man, regardless of color, race or gender, and expounded upon the dual fates of "two little black boys" born in 1920s America, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. \nThough each sprung from decidedly different origins -- Martin to a upper-middle class family of relative privilege, with formal education at several prestigious institutions and schools of divinity, and Malcolm to a Nebraskan family entangled in domestic violence and wrought with the wrath of the Ku Klux Klan -- the pair nevertheless found a common ground in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. \nKing, born Michael, and the son of a Georgia Baptist minister, adopted the name the world would come to know after reading treatises authored by Martin Luther, who spearheaded the Reformation of the Catholic Church. Malcolm, influenced largely by his experiences with the Nation of Islam in Detroit, similarly adopted the moniker 'X', abandoning his last name of Little. \nBoth were icons of contemporary African-American culture, Gordon asserted. Martin became a "pivotal figure in the civil rights movement" and was arrested 30 times for his involvement in civil rights activism. Malcolm X, though initially opposed to the idea whites could possess any sort of moral conscious and who once believed only revolution could lead to the correct placement of blacks in society, eventually recognized civil rights as synonymous with human rights. \n"Because I grew up in the segregated South...I, like so many, admired both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King for the way the preached," Gordon said. "Both promoted self-knowledge and responsibility for cultural history as the basis for unity."\nGordon, Professor Emeritus of the School of Music, retired after serving IU for 26 years. He received a B.S. from Virginia State University, a Master of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and obtained Masters and Doctorate of Education from the Columbia University Graduate School of Education, Teachers College. He served IU as both professor and administrator, as Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students from 1981 to 1991. \nHe established such programs as the IU chapters of Boost Alcohol Consciousness Concerning the Health of University Students and Students Against Drunk Driving, the Alcohol-Drug Information Center, the Foster International Living-Learning Center and the Student Advocates Office. He was honored with the Herman Wells Image Award in 2000. \nElizabeth Mitchell, a member of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration Commission who helped plan the event, said she hopes members of the community will respond to yesterday's festivities -- as well as the very man who inspired them -- because of the lessons King's example held up to American society.\n"If people don't care about Dr. King, they should, because of the person he is," Mitchell said. "He made changes -- he showed Americans that what they were doing was wrong and that they could not continue down that same path...He shows us that it only takes one person to get the ball rolling."\nDarrell Ann Stone of the IU Student Activities Office echoed Mitchell's sentiments. \n"We visit the portals of the past over, and over to feel inspirational words (to) feed out heart and soul," Stone said. "On this day, we are not silent. We are alive with sound, and centered on all that matters."\n-- Contact senior writer Holly Johnson at hljohnso@indiana.edu.