On Jan. 29 in the Lo Schiavo Getty Study, students gathered to reflect on the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with their beloved community. Reimagined by Ronald Sundstrom, professor of philosophy and African American Studies, the event was intentionally designed to center student voices, inviting them to read King’s words and to interpret and reflect on them through their own experiences. The atmosphere in the Getty Study was calm and the seats were closely arranged, creating a sense of intimacy.
Despite the current far-right backlash to the holiday, USF honored King’s legacy just a few days after his birthday. Centered on his book of sermons, titled “Strength to Love,” the event brought together students and faculty to reflect on King’s words.
Sundstrom is a fellow for Clarence B. Jones Faculty, which furthers the legacy of King and Dr. Clarence B. Jones through nonviolence education, moral witness and social justice advocacy to realize King’s vision of the “Beloved Community.” Sundstrom said, “I wasn’t told to do it. I wanted to do it, and I knew immediately I wanted the students to be front and center.” He described it as his responsibility to ensure the event happened while allowing students to lead the conversation and interpretation of King’s work.
Co-event coordinator and USF speech and debate team coach, Professor Robert Boller said, “In this moment in time, [we’re] dealing with just really violent clashes in the street and obviously peoples fears are being manifested.”
The six student readers, Chisom Okorafor, Anthony Jackman, Wynton Cook, Madaih Kursheed, Nissi Rakesh and Qiana Woods, are all affiliated with the McCarthy Center, the Marshall-Riley Living Learning Community and the USF Debate Team. Students took turns reading selected excerpts from “Strength to Love,” a collection of sermons that fuse King’s Christian teachings to his ideas of love and nonviolence to combat hate and oppression.
Kursheed, junior public health major, explained that the urgency of King’s words felt impossible to ignore. “I saw the news more often and I thought, more than ever, this is needed,” she said. Kursheed’s statement echoed a broader sentiment shared by many of the student speakers.
In 1983, Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a federal holiday following a 15-year campaign to honor King’s legacy of nonviolent civil rights activism. Since then, the holiday serves as a day of remembrance, but has recently been contested under the new administration.
In early December, the Trump administration removed the holiday from the National Park Service’s list of fee-free days for 2026, ensuing backlash from civil rights groups and lawmakers, who condemned the action as diminishing the observance of holidays honoring Black history.
The students voted and decided on the selected excerpt that spoke to themes of
justice, fear, responsibility and moral courage. Though King wrote the sermons more than half a
century ago, they resonate amid current events.
Woods, a first-year business analytics major, said, “King’s words on nonviolence ring true in our generation as nonviolent protests are still being held today as we navigate this path of liberation as a society.”
King’s moral responsibility and reflections relate to these current events. “King’s vision is still alive, it can speak to people personally, socially and politically. King is not the period at the end of our sentence—King is a comma,” Sundstrom said.
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