By Colin Young

On Wednesday, John Wilson, the keynote speaker for the Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation touted the value of King’s moral compass and spoke of the racial and political progress that can be gained in the Barack Obama presidency at Blackman Auditorium.

The event, which was sponsored by the John D. O’Bryant African-American Institute, Alpha Pi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and Brothers About Change, began with an atmosphere of cheer, joy and excitement as a procession of African drummers and dancers paraded toward the stage. After a brief invocation by African American studies professor Emmett Price, President Joseph Aoun welcomed the crowd and made the first of many allusions to the coming presidential inauguration of Obama.

“Last year, who would have said that we would have an African American president leading this nation?” President Aoun said. “It could only happen here, in this nation. In some ways it is a great measure of what we have done, but also it is a statement of what needs to be done worldwide.”

The comparisons between King and Obama continued throughout the event. Nathan Simms, President of Brothers About Change, gave a stirring speech about the change that King envisioned and the change that can be realized by our generation.

“As Dr. King believed and now Barack Obama believes, change is possible. Dream believed, dream achieved,” said Simms. “Dr. King believed in equality and he believed that the best way to achieve equality was through love and community. Let us take a moment to recognize that in these times of chaos and economic instability we have entrusted a black man to lead us forward and help us confront the problems and issues we face in the global community.”

Wilson, executive dean and associate professor of higher education at George Washington University, gave the afternoon’s keynote address and told the audience that his goal was to leave them on a mountaintop. Rev. Dr. Wilson spoke of the “post-Dream” Dr. King and the ideas Dr. King held between the time of his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 and his assassination in 1968.

“In the last five years of his life, he [King] had a magnificent awakening, something you rarely hear about. This “post-Dream” King is the one who said we need a complete reconstruction of the entire society, a revolution of values,” Wilson said.

Wilson based a large part of his speech on what King called the “three evils”: militarism, materialism and racism. Rather than just tell the audience, Wilson used video and audio clips of King to demonstrate his “beautiful outrage” regarding the three evils. Wilson linked King’s statements from the 1960s to the war in Iraq and the current conflict in Gaza.

“In King’s America, moral power is more important than military power, dissent should never be confused with disloyalty and if you make a huge miscalculation in going to war, admit that you made a mistake and end that war,” Wilson said. “He would be angry with Israeli conduct in Gaza right now, he would neither ignore nor excuse the asymmetric devastation over there.”

Wilson then spoke of racism in modern America and the progress that has been made since the time of King.

“The fire of racism is largely out, but the smoke remains. The smoke can sometimes be more lethal than the fire,” said Wilson. “We may be post-racial, but we are not post-racism. The smoke of racism is still in the air.”

As his speech came to a close, Wilson shifted his focus to criticism of the Bush administration and praise for President elect Obama.

“Barack Obama will be our president in six days