Video: MLK Day keynote by Khalil Muhammad and Mays Debate with Bates and Morehouse

The Martin Luther King Jr. Day keynote began with brief remarks by Akira Townes ’17 of Cockeysville, Md.; Matt Auer, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty; and President Clayton Spencer.

Yannick Marshall, visiting instructor in African American studies, introduced educator and author Khalil Gibran Muhammad, who spoke on “No Reparations Without Racial Education: Martin Luther King on the Tyranny of Ignorance.”

The Rev. Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays, Class of 1920, Debate saw Bates and Morehouse debaters take on this motion: “This house believes the state should exclusively focus on rectifying current inequalities to the exclusion of compensating for historical injustices.”

For the Goverment: Tessa Holtzman ’17 of Bates, a politics major from Las Cruces, N.M., and Mati Baker of Morehouse, a junior African American studies major from Baltimore, Md.

For the Opposition: Zoe Seaman-Grant ’17 of Bates, a women and gender studies major from Charleston, S.C., and Sha’Heed Brooks of Morehouse a sophomore philosophy major from Fayetteville, N.C.

Earlier in the month, Bates’ Grant and her partner Matt Davis ’18 advanced to the finals of the World Universities Debating Championships in the Netherlands.)