BU’s most famous alum, Martin Luther King, Jr. (GRS’55, Hon.’59), delivers his Nobel Peace Prize lecture at the University of Oslo in Norway on December 10, 1964. At the time, King, at 35, was the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Photos by the Associated Press

University News

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Observance to Be Built around His Nobel Peace Prize Speech

Scholar and author Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor to keynote joint University-city celebration

In his acceptance speech for the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. described a world eerily similar to 2024’s. Racism, poverty, war: King (GRS’55, Hon.’59) lamented that all those issues afflicted humanity that year. 

“There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance,” he told the assembled guests. “The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.” King declared the solution to be the philosophy of nonviolence he was then deploying in the civil rights movement and “an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men.”

In 2024—a presidential election year in the US, as in 1964—King’s lecture, “The Quest for Peace and Justice,” has inspired the theme for Boston University’s annual joint observance of his birthday with the city of Boston: Whose Quest for Peace and Justice?

The January 15 ceremony, keynoted by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author and professor of African American studies at Princeton University, will run from noon to 2 pm in the Metcalf Ballroom of the George Sherman Union, 775 Commonwealth Ave. (Doors will open at 11:45 am.) Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and US Sen. Edward Markey (D-Ma.) will also address the event, which will include a conversation between Taylor and Saida Grundy, College of Arts & Sciences associate professor of sociology, African American and Black diaspora studies, and women’s and gender studies.

Taylor’s books include Race for Profit (Princeton University Press, 2019), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History. She received a 2021 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, known as the “genius grant.” A New Yorker contributor, she was named one of the 100 most influential African Americans in 2016 by The Root webzine. Two years later, Essence magazine named her among the United States’ top 100 “change makers.” 

“Our goal is always to provide an event that celebrates the fullness and robust versions of King,” says Nick Bates, director of BU’s Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, named for King’s mentor, the Rev. Howard Thurman (Hon.’67), dean of Marsh Chapel in the 1950s and ’60s.

“Today’s contemporary narrative of King reduces him to a single speech [1963’s ‘I Have a Dream’] and a single belief,” says Bates. “As a practitioner of Thurman’s philosophy and work, which influenced King, I know there are layers to the intellectual thought and love ethic of King. Additionally, we are always happy to point out similarities and connections to Howard Thurman and other thinkers that have impacted King.”

“Dr. King’s words remind us that true progress lies not only in the transformation of society but also in the transformation of our own hearts,” says Jason Campbell-Foster, dean of students. “They are a timeless call to dismantle the barriers that divide us, to embrace empathy, and to rise above the constraints of prejudice and discrimination to achieve a more peaceful world.”

Carina Spinola (CAS’26) and Destiny Perkins (Pardee’25) will do readings at the observance, which will also include music performances by, among others, Rozime Lindsey (CFA’23,’28) and Victor Coelho, a College of Fine Arts professor of music.

With Biblical reference, King’s Nobel speech foresaw a long struggle for justice ahead: 

“We have left the dusty soils of Egypt and crossed a Red Sea whose waters had for years been hardened by a long and piercing winter of massive resistance. But before we reach the majestic shores of the Promised Land, there is a frustrating and bewildering wilderness ahead. We must still face prodigious hilltops of opposition and gigantic mountains of resistance. But with patient and firm determination we will press on until every valley of despair is exalted to new peaks of hope…”

The Medical Campus will host another King Day event on Jan. 18. Researchers from Boston Medical Center will discuss Anti-racism in Addiction Treatment at Hiebert Lounge, L Building, 72 East Concord Street (14th floor) from 5 to 7 pm. Registration is required.

In addition to the city, sponsors of this year’s observance include BU’s Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, Dean of Students Office, Government & Community Affairs, Office of the Senior Diversity Officer, and African American and Black Diaspora Studies program.