The First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City hosted the reading of the play as part of Salt Lake Community College’s celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.
After the reading, a panel explored the legacies of King and Malcolm X and the different and opposing ways that King and Malcolm X used to gain freedoms for African-Americans.
“People don’t understand that the movement he (King) was a part of was a thinking… movement,” says Dr. Clifton Sanders, Dean of the School of Science, Mathematics and Engineering. “What the movement was after was the redemption of humanity.”
According to associate professor Josh Gold, Malcolm X came back from Mecca changed.
“On the hajj, his pilgrimage, race played no role,” says Gold.
While America has come far in the struggle for equality, there is still work to be done.
“All we want is a fair share at the table,” says actor Harold DeHorney, who read the part of Malcolm X’s bodyguard Rashad, “Level the playing field for everyone.”
SLCC’s celebration of King will continue with keynote speaker Michele Goodwin at noon on Jan. 28 in the Oak Room on the Taylorsville Redwood Campus in the Student Event Center and the presentation of and panel discussion with the winners of the 2013 Martin Luther King Humanitarian Embracing the Dream Award winners on Jan. 29 at 9 a.m. in the Oak Room.
