Speeches and Remarks
OFFICIAL TEXT
January 19, 2012
Remarks by Consul General Jennifer McIntyre at Fatima College
As Prepared Text
Vanakkam Reverend Lilly Kutty, Vice Principal, Fathima College, Madurai, Dr. Esther Mary, faculty and students.
I am honored to be at Fatima College, whose vision is to empower women through education. The U.S. Consulate is proud of its long standing relationship with your school, engaging regularly here on a variety of themes. I was pleased to learn Dr. Jessica Shoshana, Associate Professor, Women’s Studies Department of the University of Massachusetts, Boston was at your campus recently to speak on “Domestic Violence – A historical perspective” and related subjects such as higher education and the status of minority women in the U.S.
Like Fatima College, the United States has many institutions catering to the educational advancement of particular sections of the population. Historically Black Colleges, for instance, have played a pivotal role in providing opportunities for the African American community in the U.S.
One of the greatest Americans of the 20th century, who America honored just a few days back, happens to be a graduate of a Historically Black College -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King and the civil rights movement he led in the 1950s and 1960s played a crucial role in bringing about a more free, more equitable and more open America.
I am happy to talk to you in Madurai today about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights Movement in India particularly because there is an interesting connection between Martin Luther King and Madurai - Dr. King and his spouse Ms. Coretta Scott King visited the Madurai Gandhi Memorial museum 53 years ago in January 1959.
One cannot truly talk about Martin Luther King without including one of India’s own greatest citizens, Mahatma Gandhi. Although these two great figures never actually met, Gandhiji’s teachings and philosophy, particularly the doctrines of non-violent resistance, service to the community and social justice, were a huge influence on King and through him on the civil rights movement in America.
Interestingly, their contact came thanks to one of the institutions I described earlier, a Historically Black College. Dr. King’s first exposure to Gandhi’s teachings came when he enrolled at Morehouse College in Atlanta, one of America’s leading Historically Black Colleges. The then-Principal of Morehouse College was Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays, who had visited India and had become a disciple of Gandhi. Mays became a great influence on King, and there, at this Historically Black College, Mays passed to King the light of Gandhian principles, a light that became a torch.
Martin Luther King Day, which I mentioned earlier, is a federal holiday held on the third Monday of January every year. It celebrates the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr. It is also seen as a day to promote equal rights for all Americans, regardless of their background.
Similarly, February is celebrated as Black History Month in the United States. Black History Month had its origins in 1915 when historian and author Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Through this organization Dr. Woodson initiated the first Negro History Week in February 1926. Dr. Woodson selected the week in February that included the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, two key figures in the history of African Americans.
In 1975, President Ford issued a Message on the Observance of Black History Week urging all Americans to "recognize the important contribution made to our nation's life and culture by black citizens." In 1976 this commemoration of black history in the United States was expanded to Black History Month, also known as African American History Month, and President Ford issued the first Message on the Observance of Black History Month that year. In subsequent years, other Presidents have continued to issue messages of hope and inspiration while recognizing the contributions of African Americans.
This year, the Association for the Study of African American Life has selected “Black Women in American Culture and History” as the 2012 theme for Black History Month. Women have played a critical role both in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, and more generally in making the United States what it is today.
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks bravely refused to change her seat on a bus, which at the time included segregated seating. Parks’ arrest and brief jailing, and the boycott that followed led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on city buses. The boycott also helped bring Dr. King and his work to national prominence. Under King’s leadership, the boycott set a pattern for nonviolent, community-based protest that became a successful strategy in the civil rights movement.
Today African American women play leading roles in the U.S. across government, industry, academia and entertainment, including Susan Rice, the current U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Oprah Winfrey, the accomplished talk show host and entrepreneur, who I understand is visiting India next week.
When President Obama visited India in 2010 he noted, “I’ve always found inspiration in the life of Gandhiji and his simple and profound lesson to be the change we seek in the world. And just as he summoned Indians to seek their destiny, he influenced champions of equality in my own country, including a young preacher named Martin Luther King. After making his pilgrimage to India a half-century ago, Dr. King called Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violent resistance “the only logical and moral approach” in the struggle for justice and progress to the solution of the race problem in the United States.”
Through his studies under Mays and his own subsequent visit to India in 1959, Dr. King accepted the torch of Gandhian principles and carried it farther, creating lasting change in the U.S. with a message that has resonated worldwide. Though King was assassinated in 1968, his words continue to echo today:
“I have a dream, that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
So to, our two countries must carry on the goals of Gandhiji and Dr. King, to work towards equal opportunity for all our citizens, regardless of race, color, creed, or gender. We owe it to our forefathers, and we owe it to our grandchildren.
I know that the education and other experiences you, the students, are receiving here at Fatima College are preparing you to do just that. The world expects a great deal of you, but I am confident you will answer the call and carry forward the torch.
Nandri