Richardson Auditorium rang with the voices of students, faculty and community members Monday during the University's 16th-annual Martin Luther King Day celebration. More than 800 people gathered to witness a musical tribute commemorating the slain civil rights activist's birthday.
"Dr. King represented the best of America," Deborah Banks, the associate dean of the religious life, said in her opening address. "He challenged our country to live out the ideals on which it was founded: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Keynote speaker Daphne Brooks, an associate professor of English and African-American studies, highlighted the impact of music on the civil rights movement in America, citing Marvin Gaye, Isaac Hayes and Stevie Wonder as musical activists.
"[Music] has in many cases the freest space to speak of the affliction of bondage," Brooks said. "It gives a voice to the African-American living under the utter discontent of subjugation."
President Tilghman, who also spoke during the event, said she was glad to mark the occasion by noting the creation of the University's new Center for African-American Studies and plan to create an African-American studies a major at Princeton within the next five years.
Tilghman added that she believes King's mission is still a work in progress. "Almost 40 years after his death ... the work of Dr. King remains undone," she said. "Injustice, prejudice and inequality still scar our nation."
"As he would be the first to tell us, we have not yet reached the promised land."
Brooks noted how the history of African-American music helps tell the story of its people. Music served as a stealthy means of communication during the time of slavery, she said, while artists like Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone helped spur the struggle for civil rights during the Jim Crow era and the years surrounding King's death.
"These musicians conceived their work as contributing to the seed of social transformation," Brooks said. "[Their] radical and revisionist sound ... galvanized the masses."
Contemporary African-American performers, such as rapper Kanye West, comedian Dave Chappelle and singer Mary J. Blige, also contribute to this legacy, Brooks said.
In addition to speeches, the afternoon's festivities featured Grammy nominee Stanley Jordan '81, who brought the crowd to its feet with his jazz guitar riffs and ability to play guitar and piano at the same time.
The musical emphasis of the event appealed to an audience that was diverse in both age and ethnicity. Community member Randy Kirkpatrick said he was especially impressed by Jordan's performance, which he described as "unbelievable."
"It didn't seem possible for him to do the things he did," Kirkpatrick said. "[This music] makes that emotional connection."
The Princeton Day School's seventh and eighth-grade choir opened the ceremony with a selection of songs, inspiring some members of the audience to sing along. Performers also included a choral group composed of the Trenton Children's Chorus Covenant Singers.
The event honored students from local schools with awards for essays, posters and videos based on the day's musical theme.
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