In the 1968 Class Day speech, Coretta Scott King praised student activism

Two months after her husband’s murder, the civil-rights leader’s widow delivered the 1968 Class Day speech.

Coretta Scott King

Steven Bussard

The Harvard class of 1968 invited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to address them on Class Day, and the civil-rights leader accepted. After his assassination on April 4, his widow agreed to speak in his stead. A standing-room-only audience, crammed into Sanders Theatre because of heavy rain, heard Coretta Scott King speak of the need for the younger generations to “hold high the banner of freedom.” Discussing the impact of contemporary student activism from the United States to Czechoslovakia, she declared that the generation gap "is a positive thing if it separates evil ideologies and customs of the past from the freedom spirit that animates much of the contemporary student movement." In struggling to give meaning to their own lives, she told her audience,

you are preserving the best in our traditions and are breaking new ground in your restless search for truth. With this creative force to inspire all of us we may yet not only survive—we may triumph.

Read her complete speech in this PDF from the July 1, 1968, issue of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin.


 

 

 

Most popular

Harvard art historian Jennifer Roberts teaches the value of immersive attention

Teaching students the value of deceleration and immersive attention

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

Without Christopher Marlowe, there might not have been a Bard.

Explore More From Current Issue

Two women in traditional kimonos, one lighting a cigarette, in a scene from Apart from You.

Harvard Film Archive Spotlights Japanese Director Mikio Naruse

A retrospective of the filmmaker’s works, from Floating Clouds to Flowing

Man splashing water on his face at outdoor fountain beside woman holding cup near stone building.

Why Heat Waves Make You Miserable

Scientists are studying how much heat and humidity the human body can take.

Catherine Zipf smiling, wearing striped shirt and dark sweater outdoors.

Preserving the History of Jim Crow Era Safe Havens

Architectural historian Catherine Zipf is building a database of Green Book sites.