To Eddie Glaude, Barack Obama’s election as the first black president of the United States isn’t the pinnacle of civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream. Obama’s election is a building block: A beginning, not an end.

‘It’s an aspect of the dream,’ said Glaude, who will deliver the keynote address Sunday for Syracuse University’s 24th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. ‘We have to understand that the dream of Dr. King extended beyond just simply holding political office. His life, his sacrifice was bound up with a quest for justice in the name of love. And love and justice aren’t reducible to the presidency of the United States.’

The legacy of King and the significance of Obama will converge in the coming days. On Monday, the country will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On Tuesday, Obama will take office, and millions will cram into Washington for Inauguration Day.

Glaude, a professor of religion and African-American studies at Princeton University, will have a chance to join the two together during his speech Sunday at the Carrier Dome. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. Tickets cost $25 for the general public and $13.75 for students without a campus meal plan. For students with a meal plan, the tickets cost one dinner. The speech, scheduled for 6:30 p.m., is free. Barbara Ransby, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, spoke last year.

The Carrier Dome dinner culminates a day’s worth of activity. Glaude will visit Syracuse’s Tucker Missionary Baptist Church at noon, before hosting a discussion at 3 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium.

In 2007, Glaude wrote ‘In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America.’ That same year, he spoke at the induction ceremony for SU’s African American Male Congress.

He was asked to return by SU’s Celebration Committee, chaired this year by Sgt. Ryan Beauford of the Department of Public Safety. Beauford hadn’t heard Glaude speak, but others on the committee had. ‘His name surfaced with a lot of good praise,’ Beauford said.

Both Beauford and Anthony Grant, a senior history major and member of the Celebration Committee, stressed they try to avoid political speakers. But in the event of Tuesday’s inauguration, political references may be unavoidable.

‘I wouldn’t be surprised if Glaude did allude to Barack Obama in some way in his speech,’ Grant said. ‘Because there is such a huge correlation between Dr. King and Barack Obama.’

So while Sunday’s celebration honors King, it occurs in the shadow of Obama. The theme of SU’s ‘I Have A Dream Week,’ is ‘Evolution of a Dream.’

Glaude has a tightrope to walk.

‘Some will view Jan. 20 as the fulfillment of Dr. King’s dream,’ Glaude said. ‘Others will see it as just a moment, to continue to struggle to make real amounts of progress.’

The days ahead are a time to both honor the past and confront the future.

‘We’re in this recession,’ Glaude said. ‘We know that there are so many Americans suffering. There are wars around the world. We know that there are so many lives being lost.’

‘So, there’s so much to be done.’

-Staff writer Matt Gelb contributed to this report.

ramccullo@syr.edu

Published on January 15, 2009 at 12:00 pm