1991 17th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration
1991 17th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration
Theme
Linking the Civil Rights Movement to MIT and Dr. King's Dream: Reality- Closing the Gap
Keynote
Executive director, NAACP (1977-1992)
Video
The Seventeenth Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Celebration took place on January 18, 1991, and featured Dr. Benjamin Hooks as keynote speaker. Four students presented a youth perspective on the significance of the celebration in their own lives.
Transcript
MODERATOR: Good afternoon, and welcome to MIT, we're going to alter our program a little bit this afternoon. And I'm going to ask Reverend Bernard Campbell to come and give us a prayer for peace in light of the current situation in the Persian Gulf. Reverend Campbell?
CAMPBELL: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming. Many here in this room are deeply troubled and anxious about the events in the Persian Gulf. Some of you have sons and daughters, husbands or wives, friends, relatives in the desert of Saudi Arabia, on ships in the Gulf or the Red Sea, or in forward surgical facilities waiting to receive the injured. Thoughtful people grieve for the loss and maiming of life, whatever the nationality, the language, the religion, or the involvement in this conflict.
Yet today, we gather here, to celebrate the dream of Martin Luther King Jr.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Center
Rev. Jesse Jackson at MIT Peace Rally Against Gulf War
14 January 1991
Rev. Jesse Jackson during the inauguration of the The Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Center at MIT on the eve of the U.N. deadline against Iraq, speaking out against the threat of imminent war in the Persian Gulf.
Ten O'Clock News: Jesse Jackson at MIT
14 January 1991
"Marcus Jones reports that anti-war activists protested across the nation to rally public opinion against the use of force in the Persian Gulf, including in downtown Boston. Jesse Jackson visited MIT to speak out against going to war in the Middle East on the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Jones notes that the MIT Initiative for Peace in the Middle East brought Jackson to the campus. Jackson says that the US must not rush to war on January 15. Interviews with MIT graduate students Corrie Lathan and Steve Penn, who oppose the war. Interview with Jesse Jackson, who says that the US and Iraq should negotiate because war is inevitable if talking is impossible. Jones' report includes footage from Inside Edition of Jackson in Iraq. Following the edited story is additional b-roll of anti-war demonstrations and of Jackson at MIT talking about Martin Luther King, Jr."
--Boston TV News Digital Library
Student Anti-War Activity: The Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Center
Peace activists intend to stay, The Tech, 12 Feb 1991
Anti-war activists who have set up an information center on the third floor of the Julius A. Stratton '23 Student Center say they hope to continue to remain there despite some opposition by students who say they are occupying space designed for general student use.
"We're not obstructing any activities that occurred before the war," said Archon Fung G, a member of the MIT Initiative for Peace in the Middle East, which runs the information center.
The "Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Center," as the anti-war activists call it, began operations on Jan. 14, shortly before US-led forces launched Operation Desert Storm to evict Iraq from Kuwait.