MLK Week 2026, started off strong with a viewing of Dr. King’s speech, “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” which was delivered at the National Cathedral, Washington, D.C. on 31 March 1968. I noticed that there were a lot of community members, faculty, and staff at the event. Everyone seemed very excited and eager to hear Dr. King’s words. Prior to event I spoke with my friend I attended the event with and he had mentioned that one of the reasons he was excited to hear to see the speech was because he had never really talked much about Dr.King growing up or in his schools outside of the “I Have a Dream” speech. He was excited for a discussion where we would be able to integrate what Dr. King was talking about the context of today’s society.
When the speech began, one of the first things that jumped out was that the speech was in color, and not the typical black and white that videos from the Civil Rights Era are usually shown in. Which reminded me that these conversations and the whole civil rights movement was not that long ago. The second thing that I noticed was how captivating of a speaker Dr. King was, from his physical demeanor to the way that he articulated his thoughts. Throughout the speech there were some things that Dr. King had said that really resonated with me, one being his description of the way in which individuals “sleep” through injustices and social change. He states “…one of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change, and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands. They end up sleeping through a revolution.” For me this emphasized a notion that we are constantly changing and developing as people. It is human nature to do so and if we want society to change we have to challenge ourselves. We have to critically think about the social and political systems that are around us, that we live in. That is how we grow and even think about creating change. This is especially relevant in today’s era where books about social critiques and social change are being banned and taken out of schools. Moreover, the knowledge that we consume on social media or other technological media is censored if it critiques government policies or global issues. We live in an era in which what we consume is strategically created, by capitalists and individuals who profit off of social inequities, making it so much more dire to be an individual who is constantly learning and questioning the world around us so that we can develop thought processes that will be helpful for social change.
Another theme of Dr. King’s speech that I enjoyed is developing a world perspective: “No individual can live alone, no nation can live alone, and anyone who feels that he can live alone is sleeping through a revolution.” We are all interconnected in this world, and oftentimes it can feel like what is happening in a different country or even with our neighbors has nothing to do with us. However, it does and real change cannot be done in isolation, it requires people and communities. The violence that the United States imposed onto other countries is the same violent tactics that the United States uses on its citizens, like violent I.C.E agents that murder people with no consequences or the continuous police brutality on Black bodies. The violence, poverty, and other social issues are not isolated to a particular group or person, it is connected to all of us. Therefore it is our collective responsibility to assist with change. Additionally, Dr. King’s statement on time, “is that time is neutral. It can be used wither constructively or destructively”. Time only creates change if there is also action being involved to create the change. The notion that “things will change with time” falls flat if there is no active process of creating change. I think oftentimes we become too comfortable in our society and the way that things are because of the privileges that we have, allowing the people in political and economic power of our nation to continue to do vicious things that harm our society. We forget that we have autonomy, choices and control and that if we really want things to change we cannot just wait. Social change is extremely uncomfortable because we all have to sacrifice some of our comfortability and privileges to create change, it comes down to how badly we really want change. Following the speech there was a discussion section where we were able to reflect with one another about the speech. Overall, I was really glad that I went to the event and it did leave me not only inspired but actively ready to be a part of the change rather than letting time go by.
-Da’Mirah Vinson