Distinguished civil rights author and scholar Michael Eric Dyson delivered UMKC’s fifth annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Keynote Address last Wednesday. Dyson said his speech reflected on Dr. King’s life as “living the legacy of an American radical.” That puts King in the same category as figures like Jesus, Mohandas Gandhi, Susan B. Anthony and Abraham Lincoln, Dyson said. “A radical is a person who appeals to the ideals that are at the roots of our democracy,” he said. Dyson defended King against accusations that he was a “defender of the status quo.” “[His] true radical legacy has been obscured and nullified by selective retrievals of specific moments of his rhetoric that don’t really testify to his evolution or final resting place,” Dyson said. “Everyone got stuck on his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech like … Read entire article »