Khelan Todd is not a far cry from the suited, clean-cut reverend he said he has emulated since he was first able to comprehend the meaning of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Todd is the chapter president of Alpha Phi Alpha, a fraternity that King pledged in 1952 while getting his master’s at Boston University.

“I think his unfortunate death was influential in the black movement,” Todd said. “It’s important that we live out the legacy he set forth.”

Todd, a senior communication studies major said he thinks the importance of King’s philosophy surpasses that of common thought of equality and focuses mainly on caring about the human condition.

“It’s caring about human life, that’s it. No matter what color, race, sexual orientation you are (you matter),” Todd said.

Todd said he thinks black people are doing the best they can.

Sireon Williams, a junior elementary education major, said she thinks different aspects of the black culture would excite and disappoint King.

“There’s a lot of diversity now. We are able to drink from water fountains behind people, go to school and learn from other cultures, but the way specifically black culture is today, I don’t think he would be happy with it,” Williams said.

Williams said she thinks King would be especially disappointed with the degrading music lyrics prevalent and associated with the black culture.

“It’s so degrading towards women,” Williams said.

Liz Smith, a senior communication studies major, said she does not think King would be impressed with the change in society or the black community.

Smith does admit that society has gotten better since the Civil Rights Movement, but also said she thinks it is not as good as it could be.

“Until we stop seeing people as stereotypes and start seeing people as individuals, until we can get passed the way people look and the sexual orientation and the race and the size-all those different classifications that we put on people we can’t move forward,” Smith said.

Williams said she thinks the only way for black people to continue to grow as a community is to raise the expectations they have for each other-beginning with speaking out.

“We are still treated like we don’t have a voice sometimes. We still don’t speak up and we still don’t do anything about some of the things that are going on,” she said. “We could raise the bar-it starts with speaking up.”

Williams also said she feels like black people-herself included-tend to settle for what they are given.

She also said she thinks black people need to educate themselves on black heritage outside of the classroom.

“In classes you can’t even cover as much history as somebody needs to know beside Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King,” she said. “It’s like those are the only two people and there are other people who contributed to (the Civil Rights Movement).

Leon Fields, a junior communication studies major, said he does not think King would be pleased with the growth of society at all.

“Our generation is not carrying (on King’s legacy),” Fields said. “Blacks are against each other and it’s really sad.”

Fields said blacks need a King-type role model.

Smith said she thinks the lack of education and the number of broken homes in the black community diminishes the pride black people should have in their culture.

“There is no pride to really take in what we have-it’s good thus far, but we still have so left to go-black people and America,” Smith said.

Smith said there are steps society can take to progress as a whole.

“The first step is getting over personal biases and personal stereotypes that we have against other people,” Smith said. “When we can get passed that we can make a change as a society.”

Blake Morris, a junior theater major, said he thinks King would be proud with the way black culture and people have been able to somewhat assimilate with the rest of the society.

“It sounds kind of cliché, but we’ve come a long way as a people from the time that Martin Luther King passed until now so much has changed,” Morris said.

Although society is not totally fundamentally equal Morris said he chooses to focus on the positive things and work his way from there.

“Despite all of the downfall as a people and as a society as a whole, in a lot of ways the good outweighs the bad,” Morris said.

Nike Ogunbodede can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].