{"id":40736,"date":"2026-01-16T12:55:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=40736"},"modified":"2026-01-19T09:35:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T14:35:43","slug":"furman-honors-mlks-legacy-with-south-african-justice-at-community-breakfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-honors-mlks-legacy-with-south-african-justice-at-community-breakfast\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman honors MLK\u2019s legacy with South African justice at community breakfast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Furman University\u2019s MLK Community Breakfast served as a reminder that community starts with us.<\/p>\n

The annual event was hosted Jan. 16 in the Younts Conference Center, bringing together students, faculty, staff and guests to honor Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s vision of building the \u201cbeloved community.\u201d The morning\u2019s guest speaker was Justice Leona Theron<\/a>, judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.<\/p>\n

\"A

Members of the Furman University Gospel Ensemble and the Clemson University Gospel Ensemble perform during the MLK Community Breakfast. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to see our students engaged with leaders who are shaping justice around the world,\u201d said Furman President Elizabeth Davis. \u201cThis will be their beloved community to care for very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theron told the crowd gathered on campus Friday that she grew up as a neighbor to the future activist and South African statesman, Nelson Mandela. From an impoverished background under apartheid rule, Theron rose to the country\u2019s highest court with a history of leading judgements and adamant defenses of women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of our countries have a legacy of exclusion, discrimination and oppression, the remnants of which both countries are dealing with today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The struggle to achieve justice for all people was one King and Mandela both dedicated their lives to: A vision of reconciling the nations\u2019 histories with their democratic values today. That struggle, Theron said, begins with each person making a difference in their own communities.<\/p>\n

Health sciences major and Joseph Vaughn Scholar Amiya Young \u201926 took this lesson to heart after a Cultural Life Program<\/a> series she attended on civil rights activist Ella Baker.<\/p>\n

\"A

A guest stands to clap along as the Furman University Gospel Ensemble and the Clemson University Gospel Ensemble perform during Furman’s MLK Community Breakfast. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHer blueprint shows us that in the house we build, everyone has a voice and everyone has a chance to lead,\u201d Young said. That requires open discourse where everyone realizes they have something to learn, which she\u2019s seen in Furman\u2019s Intergroup Dialogue Program<\/a> and through the On Discourse<\/a> initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn these spaces, titles mean less than our shared identities,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n

The campus community will continue to honor King\u2019s legacy of community-building on this year\u2019s MLK Day of Service. Students wanting to lend a hand through the Heller Service Corps<\/a> can gather at 12:30 p.m. Jan. 19, in the Trone Student Center Watkins Room for on and off-campus service work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African Constitutional Court Justice Leona Theron was the keynote speaker at the annual MLK Community Breakfast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":401,"featured_media":40730,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversity-equity-and-inclusion"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40736"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40740,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40736\/revisions\/40740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}