A 1967 speech by Martin Luther King, Jr decrying “racism, excessive materialism and militarism” is the theme of BU’s 2026 observance of his birthday. Photo by Chick Harrity, File/AP Photo

MLK Day

BU and Boston’s Annual MLK Day Observance to Take Inspiration from King’s 1967 Speech

This year’s theme will explore civil rights leader’s address condemning racism, greed, and war

The theme of Boston University’s annual celebration of its most famous alumnus, Martin Luther King, Jr. (GRS’55, Hon.’59), takes inspiration from a speech that the civil rights leader gave in 1967: “The Three Evils of Society.”

The observance, being held at noon on January 19 at the George Sherman Union (775 Commonwealth Ave.) and cosponsored by the city of Boston, is titled Justice Indivisible: Fighting Racism, Greed, and War. Keynoted by sociologist and visual artist Eve L. Ewing, associate professor at the University of Chicago, the 90-minute event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at noon.

“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic life, transformative leadership, and enduring legacy is central to the city of Boston,” says Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. “Thank you to Boston University for your partnership in continuing this tradition and allowing us to come together to honor the Kings’ legacy and carry their message of hope and power to the community forward.”

BU President Melissa Gilliam will also speak at the celebration, along with two BU students who are graduates of Boston Public Schools. The event will include a performance by Atlanta soul/R&B/hip-hop musician ZURI. Her debut extended play release, Superficial, came out last year.

“Martin Luther King, Jr. was an alumnus of Boston University…. He devoted his life to building bridges through civil discourse, to creating communities rooted in dignity and mutual respect, and to serving others,” Gilliam says. “These principles matter deeply to us, and they are fundamental to our partnership with the city of Boston and our shared programs in civic engagement and access to education.” 

“King notes ‘poverty, racism, and militarism’ as ‘three evils’ plaguing American society,” says Nick Bates, director of BU’s Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, referring to King’s 1967 speech. “We believe Dr. Ewing will be able to unpack the relationship between these three evils and schooling/education in the United States.” 

“When King talks about the three evils, he isn’t just describing problems out there somewhere,” says Jason Campbell-Foster, dean of students. “He’s inviting us—particularly students, who Dr. King had deep faith in—to notice what feels unfair, to care about it, and to believe we have something real to offer in response. That’s why it still speaks so strongly today.”

In his speech—given in the midst of the Vietnam War, the federal War on Poverty, and the civil rights movement—King noted that stalled progress against the three evils had bred “bewildering frustration and corroding bitterness,” some directed at him from fellow civil rights activists.

“In all the speaking I have done in the United States before varied audiences,” he said, “including some hostile whites, the only time I have ever been booed was one night in our regular weekly mass meetings by some angry young men of our movement…. They were now booing me because they felt that we were unable to deliver on our promises.” 

“I suspect that we are now experiencing the coming to the surface of a triple-prong sickness that has been lurking within our body politic from its very beginning,” he said. “That is the sickness of racism, excessive materialism, and militarism.… It is necessary for the moral individual to take a stand that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but he must do it because it is right. And we say to our nation tonight, we say to our government, we even say to our FBI, we will not be harassed, we will not make a butchery of our conscience, we will not be intimidated and we will be heard.”

BU’s event will include a discussion between Ewing and Paula Austin, associate professor of history and African American and Black diaspora studies at BU’s College of Arts & Sciences. 

Ewing received her master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard and was the first artist in residence at Boston Children’s Museum in 2016. There, her text-and-street art installation, A Map Home, covered themes of “emotions, and experiences, and daily life in some of the places where I’ve lived,” she said in an informational video about the work.

Her scholarship has focused on the role of racism in school closures in her native Windy City. During the pandemic, she also studied the roles of race and socioeconomic status on students’ access to counselors and therapists and their experiences with COVID-19 sickness and death. She also cowrote the Marvel Comics series Ironheart, about a superhero MIT student.

The event is sponsored by the Howard Thurman Center, the Dean of Students Office, BU Government & Community Affairs, BU Libraries, the University’s African American & Black Diaspora Studies program, and the city of Boston.

Following the celebration, there will be special tours of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Reading Room in the Mugar Memorial Library, beginning at 2 pm and running approximately every 20 minutes through 3:30 pm. Visitors can enter through the library entrance on the first floor of the George Sherman Union to join a tour. 

BU Libraries holds an archival collection of King’s manuscripts, notebooks, correspondence, printed material, financial and legal papers, photographs, and other items dating from 1947 to 1964. To view the papers or to visit the reading room at another time, email archives@bu.edu or visit bu.edu/library/gotlieb-center for more information.