Past Celebrations

“Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in."
- MLK’s Speech at the March for Integrated Schools, April 18, 1959.

Speaker: Christale Spain '99, Chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party

“For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”
- Excerpt from Be the Best of Whatever You Are by Douglas Malloch used by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech at Glenville High School – April 26, 1967

Speaker: Alex English, NBA Hall of Famer and USC Board of Trustees

“…the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
- Washington National Cathedral, March 31, 1968

Speaker: Lessie Price, Aiken City Councilwoman for District 2

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
- Letter from Birmingham, Alabama Jail, April 16, 1963

Speaker: James E. Clyburn, U.S. House of Representatives, 6th District of South Carolina

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
- Letter from Birmingham, Alabama Jail, April 16, 1963

Speaker: Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis, President of Benedict College

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
- Strength to Love, 1963

Speaker: Bobby Donaldson, Director of University of South Carolina Center for Civil Rights History & Research

“The time is always right to do what is right.”
- Stanford University, 1967

Speaker: Patricia Russell-McCloud, Esq., Author and Speaker

“Everybody is great because everybody can serve…you only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”
- The Drum Major Instinct, Ebenezer Baptist Church, 1968

Speaker: Sen. Mia McLeod, South Carolina State Senator

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
- Bloody Sunday Sermon, 1965

Speaker: Bakari Sellars, CNN Contributor

“If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”
- Spelman College, 1960

Speaker: Judge Glenda Hatchett, TV Host and former Chief Judge

“Faith is taking the first step even if you can’t see the whole staircase.”

Speaker: Charles F. Bolden, Jr., Administrator for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
- The Birth of a New Age, Chicago IL, 1956

Speaker: Mignon Clyburn, Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission