1998 24th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration

Theme

'The Same Old Bone': The Campaign Against Affirmative Action

Keynote

Lezli Baskerville

Civil rights attorney and political activist

MLK Leadership Awardees

Eto Otitigbe

’99

Tobie Weiner

Lynda M. Jordan PhD '85

Associate Professor of Chemistry, North Carolina A&T State University

CEO and Founder, A Place to Heal Ministries, Inc. (APTHM)

Associate Minister, Holy Temple Church, Roxbury, MA

Inspiration

The phrase "the same old bone" was used by Dr. King to describe the tactics of the Kennedy administration regarding racial matters in his book Why We Can't Wait (Harper and Row, 1963). Dr. King wrote: "The Negro felt that the same old bone had been tossed to him in the past -- only now it was being passed to him on a platter, with courtesy."

Brochure

Courtesy of Philip Alexander and the MIT Black History Project

Video

Transcript

CORINA SETINA: Good morning, and welcome to the 24th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Junior breakfast celebration. My name is Corina Setina. I'm currently a junior in the Department of Management Science, and it is an honor to be your mistress of ceremonies this morning.

I would like to begin by thanking President Charles M. Vest and Mrs. Rebecca Vest for hosting this morning's event. Thank you president and Mrs. Vest. And I would like to welcome Lezli Baskerville esq, our keynote speaker. It is a pleasure to have you with us this morning.

I would like to thank the members of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee who have helped make this morning's event possible. Please stand as I call your names, Corina [INAUDIBLE], Professor Philip Clay, Maureen Costello, Ronald Critchlow, Dean Anne Davis Shaw, Professor Jerome Friedman, Reverend Jane Gold, Professor Kenneth Hale, Professor Wesley Harris, Dean Arnold Henderson Jr, Evette Lane, Professor Philip Morrison, Professor Melissa Nobles, Richard O'Bryant, Paul [INAUDIBLE], Roberts Sales, Laurie Smith, Professor Cardinal Ward, Dr. Clarence Williams, and the co-chairs of the Committee Professor Michael Feld and Dean Leo Osgood Jr. Thank you all.

Youth Conference

On Saturday, Feb. 14, the King celebration continued with the ninth annual weekend youth council for high school students from Boston and Cambridge. The theme of the day-long event was "Youth: The Future, Technology and Entrepreneurship." Melvin King, senior lecturer emeritus in urban studies and planning and a founder of the MIT Community Fellows program, was the guest speaker.