Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dear Skidmore Community, 

‌‌Next week, we as a nation recognize and celebrate the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Each year of my presidency, I have written to you on this occasion to honor King’s teachings and recognize his central role in our shared American project. That message has never felt more vital to me than today. 

‌Dr. King famously stated his goal as “standing up for the best in the American dream and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy, which were dug deep by the founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.” Like Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, like Fanny Lou Hamer and Dorothy Day and Michelle Obama, King is one of the leaders who make me most proud to be an American. For King holds America to account for those principles in our founding documents, which are, he wrote, “a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.” A promissory note — an I Owe You, a commitment we all make to one another. 

‌This seems most potent to me as we look toward the upcoming Presidential Inauguration. I am reminded of the responsibilities of leadership. Leadership, I have long maintained, is about service to ideals that are greater than oneself. I am also reminded of the responsibilities of democracy. Democracy, it must be said, is hard work, requiring support for a diversity of voices, views, and opinions, and everyone’s right to have their say and share their perspectives. Intolerance, single-mindedness, and seeking out only those who agree with you — that is the easy way, the path of least resistance, and it is destructive to the ideals of democracy. King — like America at its best — always calls us to take the harder path. That, ultimately, is the path of freedom, and of love. 

‌I remain immensely proud that at Skidmore we commit to the tougher course of welcoming and hearing all. That’s the way of hope, the way of King’s stubborn hope for America’s future.

‌As we pay tribute to Dr. King, Skidmore is again partnering with MLK Saratoga to support the Dr. King Celebration Weekend, which begins this Friday, Jan. 17. Events, including a masterclass with Assistant Professor of Dance Kieron Dwayne Sargeant, will be offered throughout the weekend. The celebration concludes on Monday, Jan. 20, with the Dr. King Weekend Community Celebration featuring a keynote address by author and Skidmore Assistant Professor of American Studies Tammy Owens and music by Garland Nelson ’96. A full schedule can be found on MLK Saratoga’s website. All events are free and open to the public, and I encourage all to attend. 

‌As we celebrate this holiday, I wish you peace and hope in this new year. 

‌‌Sincerely, 
‌Marc Conner 
‌President