Last month, I gave the keynote address at a local high school for their annual Martin Luther King, Jr. assembly. In preparation, I was inspired to read and title my talk after Dr. King’s last book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community.
Writing in the year before he was killed, Dr. King penned his book from the tranquil shores of Jamaica while grappling with emerging storms within the civil rights movement. On the heels of the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the movement had begun to widen its focus to redress poverty and its deleterious effects on housing, education, and employment conditions in the north. Such a strategic shift was leading to defections by allies and outright backlash from enemies. Others questioned the practice of nonviolence as riots erupted in Los Angeles.
In his writing, Dr. King articulated a new vision for the movement by confronting fundamental questions of both the movement and America: Who are we? What are we meant to be? Where do we go from here?
Who are we? What are we meant to be? For MIT, I would argue, the answers to these questions are foretold by our 164-year legacy of innovation that’s continuing to solve the most vexing problems in service to the nation and the world. The questions are answered through the “mens et manus” of 146,000 living alumni. And we answer the questions each year when we welcome and launch the next generation of leaders. And the intersections of these ideas, concepts, and cultures in one community produces a Medici Effect in our classrooms, labs, and offices. This begs the next question.
Where do we go from here? The answer to this question is the unfolding story we write together, but we must do so in community, just as we’ve done at other pivotal points in MIT’s history—even if we are experiencing what feel like tectonic legal, cultural, and political shifts in the U.S. right now. We can cut through what he called “the chaos of division” and prioritize the power of community. Here, we hear a hopeful message from this important light in history:
“Our most fruitful future is to stand firm, move forward non-violently, accept disappointment, and cling to hope.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sincerely,
Karl W. Reid ’84, SM ’85
Vice President for Equity and Inclusion
[Editor’s Note: The above is reprinted from the February 2025 edition on the ICEO News.]
