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Furman honors MLK’s legacy of building the ‘Beloved Community’
L. Joy Williams speaks during the annual MLK Community Breakfast that was held in the Younts Conference Center on Friday morning, January 17, 2025.
To the tune of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” Furman University brought Martin Luther King Jr.’s lessons to bear Friday as it sought to be part of King’s “Beloved Community.”
The MLK Community Breakfast on Friday, Jan. 17, in the Younts Conference Center was an opportunity to focus on King’s vision of freeing the world of poverty, racism and violence.
“We’re all here from different pathways of life to celebrate not just a man, but a movement,” said Furman President Elizabeth Davis.
Larry McCullough, director of the Furman Gospel Ensemble, leads a group of singers during the annual MLK Community Breakfast that was held in the Younts Conference Center on Friday morning, January 17, 2025.
The morning’s keynote speaker was political strategist L. Joy Williams, president of the Brooklyn NAACP and host of the podcast Sunday Civics. Her passion for civics helped pass the New York John Lewis Voting Rights Act and establish a commission on reparations. But she said that drive comes from a long line of Black women who have found ways to exercise their power despite opposition: Journalist Ida B. Wells, civil rights activist Ella Baker, Freedom Rides organizer Diane Nash and South Carolina’s Modjeska Simkins.
“The key part of all of those examples is the power that is in their civic engagement,” Williams said. “My purpose is to bring the power back in civic engagement.”
That’s what King brought to the forefront, she said. He had the ability to rally millions to challenge systemic oppression and wielded the power of collective action to meet people’s needs and change discriminatory social conditions.
Education, Williams said, was how formerly enslaved people created communities and harnessed their power. She said access to education continues to be an essential tool in sparking political engagement.
“That was the first thing the formerly enslaved immediately created – establishing schools,” she said. “If I educate you, then you have access to the world.”
Audience members give L. Joy Williams, not show, a standing ovation after her speech during the annual MLK Community Breakfast that was held in the Younts Conference Center on Friday morning, January 17, 2025.
Jubilee Baptist Church Pastor Reggie Garrett ’98 represents more than 1,200 Black Furman graduates as chairman of the Black Alumni Council. He praised Williams’ empowering message and encouraged young Black students to continue the work laid down by previous generations.
“Do not forget where you come from. Immerse yourself not only in the university culture, but in what it means to be a Black student on campus.”
Senior health sciences major Amanda Nnodim ’25 found her community in Furman and has been helping other students feel welcome in it as well. As the student speaker at Friday’s community breakfast, she described her own “foundation of love.” At Furman, that foundation was built through her Alpha Kappa Alpha sisters, her role on the Furman Student Diversity Council and the Pathways Program. Nnodim serves as a Pathways peer mentor and a first-year academic advisor.
“You never know what’s going to work for you until you immerse yourself in it. We each have our own pathway to community,” she said. “That’s how the ‘Beloved Community’ is formed.”
Students will put King’s lessons to work for their community through Furman’s Heller Service Corps. Volunteers are encouraged to join the MLK Day of Service efforts from 10 a.m. to noon Monday, Jan. 20 at the Watkins Room in the Trone Student Center for a variety of service projects with community partners on and off campus.
