During an evening dedicated to commemorating the accomplishments and beliefs of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., students, faculty and community members gathered in the Mandela Room to listen to the words of a woman who has fought for civil rights from Washington, D.C. to South Africa.
Dr. Mary Frances Berry, a former commissioner of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, spoke to a crowd of over 200 people about pursuing King’s dream, rather than remembering it as just that.
‘His [King’s] agenda was not just having a dream ‘ Having a dream would be the last thing he would want to have been known for,’ she told the audience.
Specifically, Berry addressed the youth in her speech, claiming that each generation has the opportunity to make a change.
During her speech, ‘Social Justice Today: Making King’s Dream a Reality,’ Berry ran through a long list of injustices still existing in the world today which King would have found problematic. The topics ranged from ‘the discrimination that still exists today,’ ‘the AIDS problem’ and the fact that ‘we still don’t have a living wage,’ to immigration, the war, peace and human rights.
‘If you want to be true to Martin Luther King’s vision and his agenda,’ Berry said, ‘ remember that each generation makes its own dent in the wall of injustice.’
Berry has made her own dent in the ‘wall of injustice,’ as she has served under the administrations of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush. Under President Carter, Berry was responsible for the federal education programs, as she worked towards desegregating higher education institutions in the South.
After Berry accepted an appointment to the Commission on Civil Rights at the end of President Jimmy Carter’s term, she was fired in 1983 under President Reagan’s administration for criticizing his civil rights policies. After she was fired along with other members of the commission, the group took the president to court.
‘We sued them [Reagan and his staff] and we beat them in a federal district court,’ said Berry in a private interview. ‘The court said that under the law the commission was supposed to be a watchdog and that you can’t kill a watchdog for biting because that’s what a watchdog is supposed to do.’
Berry was re-instated to the commission, which changed its structure as a result of the republican congress passing a new law dealing with tenure. According to Berry, the new law ‘destroyed the integrity of the commission.’ She stayed on the commission as a ‘minority voice,’ until President Bill Clinton appointed her president of the commission in 1993.
Before resigning from the commission in 2004, Berry dealt with issues such as the 2000 Florida elections and the murder of Amaduo Diallo by New York City Police Officers in 1999.
During the early 1980s Berry was also involved in the South Africa Support Project and the TransAfrica lobbyist group as she worked to help people in what is now Zimbabwe gain their freedom, as well as ending apartheid in South Africa.
In an effort to release the prisoners of the revolution, like Nelson Mandela, and end apartheid, ‘we started a movement by going to the South African embassy and demanded an end to apartheid and sitting in,’ said Berry.
The sit-in started a national movement to gain sanctions against U.S. trade with South Africa, including protests across college campuses, and eventually, the movement passed.
‘It [the law] helped to end apartheid in South Africa,’ said Berry.
Afterward, she went with a group including Jesse Jackson throughout the country of South Africa, and protested to see the conditions of Nelson Mandela.
‘They called us up one night and said ‘you don’t have to go to the prison, we’re letting him out,’ said Berry. ‘ And that was the beginning of the end of apartheid.’
Audience members found Berry’s speech and overall message to be especially moving.
‘In general we feel that the message of MLK Jr. is a very important one and one that should be remembered,’ said Rachel Petroff, a program associate with Hillel, one of the co-sponsors of the event. ‘She spoke very powerfully, touching really on a wide range of issues. I was really surprised at how optimistic she was ‘ I think she really believes that we are able to go the distance to do the rest of the work.’
Berry’s work concerning civil rights in the United States and the Free South Africa movement is not finished yet, as she encouraged students and other audience members to make ‘incremental changes.’
‘I ask you to think of something you can do everyday for the rest of your life in the name of social justice,’ Berry said. ‘I’ve learned to be content with the small changes; the incremental change is fine at this point.’