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MLK Vigil Evokes Memories, Hopes, Challenges, Tears

The Holt School enjoyed a strong presence at the Rollins celebration of Martin Luther King’s birthday, held the evening of January 19 on the Cornell Fine Arts Museum patio. While a chill wind ruffled neck scarves and coat hems, a large and diverse crowd of students, staff, and visitors drank hot chocolate as they listened to speakers commemorate the great social leader and the cause he gave his life for.

One especially compelling speaker was Holt School Director of Student Services Connie Holt, who moved audience members to tears. “It’s just amazing to be alive today,” she said before addressing the nation’s hopes—Barack Obama’s new presidency—and its fears—the faltering world economy. Threading her speech with the refrain “we’ve come a long way,” Holt praised the progress of civil rights in the century and a half since Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and in the four decades since Dr. King lost his life. She went on to caution the audience about complacency, however, stating, “No one is free until everyone is free,” encouraging them to “rid the world of not only racism but all of the ‘isms.’” Comparing the past 40 years to the Hebrews’ wilderness journey, Holt said paradise isn’t reached simply by crossing its threshold. “We have not reached utopia,” she said, urging an onward walk toward complete human equality, assuring the rapt crowd they would someday be able to sing with conviction, “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, free at last.”

Hamilton Holt School organizational behavior major Kassondra Corbett focused her own speech on another cause of great importance to Dr. King—education. Noting that King believed education rather than legislation was the way to change social attitudes, Corbett discussed the value of experiential education, or the concept of learning by doing, championed by both John Dewey and Hamilton Holt. Using her semesters at Rollins as a personal measure, Corbett evaluated the roles of both the College and its student body. “Our community is only as strong as its weakest link,” she said. “So, while I challenge the administration to place a stronger focus on thinking and experience across the curriculum, I appeal to my peers to prove that we are responsible enough to be evaluated by unconventional means.” She closed her remarks by quoting the man who preached the value of the internal over the external and brought so many people together on such a cold and windy night. “Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”

March 2009

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