Tonight, as we look back on our lifetime achievement awardee’s extraordinary quarter century of leadership as chairman of Missouri’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday commission, I recall that when Dr. Henry Givens Jr. was first appointed by then Governor John Ashcroft back in 1985.
I was a young,a very young, member of the Missouri Legislature!
So Doc, you and I have been on this road together from the beginning.
No one could have imagined that because of Dr. Given’s visionary leadership, along with the dedication of his fellow commissioners, Missouri’s annual commemoration of Dr. King’s legacy would become the second largest in the nation.
But when I look back at Doc’s record of achievements, I’m not really surprised.
You see, while my friend was creating the statewide structure to commemorate the King Holiday, he was also tripling the size of the student body at Harris-Stowe, expanding this campus from one building to seven buildings, and leading this historically black institution’s march to achieving full state university status.
And if that wasn’t enough, Dr. Givens also found time to save his alma mater, Lincoln University, which was on the verge of financial collapse, and is now thriving.
My friends, in all of the great progress during the last two years in Washington, a small story was mostly overlooked.
Not long after he was sworn in, the President and the First Lady noticed that the carpet in the Oval Office was worn out after eight years of the Bush administration.
So they commissioned a new rug.
When I was there recently, I saw that there are five quotations woven into the fringe of the carpet.
Included are inspiring words from Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and of course … Dr. King.
The quote from Dr. King comes from one of his favorite call and responses. At the height of the struggle Dr. King often asked us, “How long? Not long! Because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
So Doc, as I think about these last 25 years of your leadership, on the commission, on this campus, and in our community, it occurs to me that Dr. King’s quote fits you perfectly.
Because whatever the mission you took on, and no matter how difficult the struggle, you always knew that the path might have been long, but it bent towards justice.
And just as Dr. King had a dream, you had one too: to establish a living legacy of scholarship, educational opportunities and cultural enrichment, based on celebrating his memory.
Your tremendous vision and courage have brought us closer to justice and equal opportunity and transformed dreams into reality for thousands of students.
I am honored to have supported you along this long and difficult journey over these many years. But mostly, I feel truly blessed to call you my dear friend.
May God bless you and Belma with many more years of health and happiness together.
Thank you for all that you’ve done for our state, this community and our nation.
May God bless you, and may God continue to bless the United States.
Edited from remarks made Jan. 8 during the 2011 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Statewide Commemoration Kickoff at Harris-Stowe State University.
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