William H. Willimon - "Making the Dream a Reality" Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Service (January 14, 1990)

This service features two student speakers--Patrick B. Thomas and Avery R. Emerson (both sophomores at Duke)--who give short reflections on MLK Jr. and his dream. In the first, Patrick Thomas likens MLK's dream to an awakening of black consciousness, and in the second, Avery Emerson focuses on MLK's dream as being action-oriented rather than idle talk and thinking. In this she challenges the black community at Duke to not dream of solutions to problems but to dream themselves as the problem solvers. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)

Sermon start time: (Part 2) 02:40.

Key quotation: “We’re not only here to celebrate the accomplishments of Dr. King. We are here to attempt to answer the question, what has become of his dream?”