In commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, UNMC Today will feature a series of photos and quotations from the civil rights leader. Today’s excerpt is from King’s 1964 acceptance speech of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Diane Ariza, Ph.D., assistant dean of multicultural affairs at Albion College in Albion, Mich., and former director of multicultural affairs at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, is the keynote speaker for the UNMC/NHS Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration Jan. 20 at noon. Free pizza and soda will be available for the first 300 guests at the Storz Pavilion. A live videotape presentation of Dr. Ariza’s presentation will be available for overflow audience members at the Wittson Hall Amphitheater.
“I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, which surrounds him. I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born. Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to humanity, I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood.”
Excerpt from Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Dec. 10, 1964.
Quoted from A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by James Melvin Washington (Harper & Row Publishers, 1986).
Photo from: Martin Luther King Jr.: To the Mountaintop, by W.M. Roger Witherspoon, Doubleday Inc., 1985.