Soaring voices and soaring words characterized the Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation last Wednesday in Blackman Auditorium.Starting with a selection performed by the Unity Gospel Ensemble and closing with the audience joining together in the African-American anthem, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” the program paid tribute to Dr. King’s legacy by recalling his message of community and inclusion, action and sacrifice, and justice and love, and urging a renewal of his life’s work.

To watch a video from Convocation, please click here:
http://www.northeastern.edu/news/multimedia/video.html?contentID=FU49zoVkokKEsa91OzOc_A

The keynote speaker, Dr. Winslow Sargeant, ’86, noted that Dr. King’s dream was about “the unprecedented future. He dreamed about a world where every American would have unlimited freedom and opportunity.”

Sargeant, a successful entrepreneur, engineer, and venture capital leader, and President Barack Obama’s nominee for the position of chief counsel for advocacy in the Small Business Administration, counts himself as a beneficiary of King’s vision.

“It was Dr, King’s dream that helped create a country where I could ask a different question. And that question was, ‘What should I do, now that I’m aware that everything is possible for me?’ ”

In closing, he urged his listeners, which included scores of students from Boston high schools, to believe in achieving what may seem impossible. “Let’s work together to do the unprecedented to transfigure both ourselves and our communities.”