“I feel like the broccoli that comes after a wonderful dessert,” said Clarence Page, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune columnist, in his keynote address at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall Monday afternoon. His address followed performances by the Northwestern Community Ensemble and the Alice Millar Chapel Choir.

Patrick G. Ryan, chairman of the Northwestern Board of Trustees, Mayor Lorraine Morton of Evanston, and Northwestern President Henry S. Bienen joined Page at the podium.

The speakers gathered to reflect upon Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights accomplishments and put them into present-day perspective.

“For here the story of Dr. King’s life and struggles has been told. Told in the spirit of trying to propel his dream into a present-day reality, but also to provide an opportunity for students to learn about him,” said Morton.

Page offered anecdotes from his lifetime observations of American race relations. King’s assassination occurred while Page was a student at Ohio University.

“Dr. King was taken from us when he was only 39 years old. I was a college student myself at the time and I thought 39 was old. I am old enough now to appreciate how really young that is. And how much can be done by all of us at a very early age–at any age if we’ve got the commitment,” Page said. “Today I’m truly humbled by looking at how much has happened since then and how much we still have to do.”

Page remembered being confronted with Jim Crow laws and overt American racism, and rallying for change.

“I saw the high school kids in Little Rock, Arkansas, inspired by the NAACP…breaking the color line there in Little Rock. I think that was the day I became politicized. That was the day I wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to be an eyewitness to history,” said Page.

Quoting King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top” speech, Page contended that King’s prophetic nature produced an eerie, yet hopeful eulogy on the eve of his death. The speech emphasized King’s satisfaction in seeing the first signs of change in America, change that continues evolving in present day society.

When considering the ramifications of past occurrences on present day society, Page referred to King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

“We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that justice too long delayed is justice denied,” said Page, quoting the letter.

Page finished by referencing King’s “Where Do We Go from Here” oration: “Let us be dissatisfied until that day when there is no white power. When there is no black power. But there will only be God’s power and human power.”

Clips from two songs performed at the event: