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“We are not only living in a time of cataclysmic change – we live in an era in which human rights is a central world issue. The shape of the world today does not afford us the luxury of an anemic democracy,” recited Curtis Evans, assistant professor of American Religions and the History of Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School. 

The words, originally spoken by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a September 1962 speech, echoed across the main quad of the University of Chicago campus on the crisp, sunny morning of January 21, 2025. 

A day after the traditional observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Evans opened the second annual “Community Readings of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” hosted by the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion. This day-long event invited community members from across the city to spend 10 minutes reading from Dr. King’s speeches and writings, creating a continuous recitation of his work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The podium from which they recited stood in the wood-paneled Swift Hall common room, under the gaze of a portrait of Benjamin Mays, an alum of the Divinity School and mentor to Dr.King. 

“It is so crucial that people "hear" a range of King's ideas from his critique of racism and white supremacy to his adherence to nonviolent protest to his rejection of consumerism, war, and imperialism,” Evans shared. “We tend to focus on only one of his speeches each year and thus fail to appreciate the breadth of his thought.” 

The event originated in 2024 from an initiative to foster reflection and connection through King’s words.    

“I had been talking with my colleague, Curtis Evans, about vigils, witnesses, observances, and what would it be like to have a vigil to this very particular person and moment in American history,” Emily Crews, executive director of the Martin Marty Center said. “How might it change us to hear his radical, powerful speeches aloud, in community, for an entire day?” 

Throughout the day, a diverse group of readers from the university and the broader community came together to reflect on King’s enduring message. Noteworthy participants included Somaiyya Ahmad, director of operations in the University’s Office of the Provost; Dr. Brad Braxton, president of Chicago Theological Seminary; and former United States Senator Carol Moseley Braun. 

"As a disciple of Dr. King, reading the original message helps me to put his struggle in context, and enhances my understanding of his message to us all," Moseley Braun said. 

The act of remembering King’s legacy through a shared reading—drawing people together from various traditions and backgrounds—embodied his calls to collective action and mutual understanding. This sentiment resonated with another passage read by Evans at the event’s start, drawn from King’s 1965 commencement address at Oberlin College: 

“...all mankind is tied together; all life is interrelated, and we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.”