On Martin Luther King Jr's birthday staff, students, alumni and friends gathered in Gaither gymnasium on the campus of Florida A&M University to celebrate his legacy.
Scholar activist and Huffington post blogger Alisha L. Gordon joined FAMU in celebration of Dr. King as the speaker. Gordon began her speech with African American hymn titled let your light shine leading the entire gymnasium with a moment of unity.
Gordon a native of Decatur Georgia and alumna of Spelman College has written stories from hip hop to fashion to most recently, police brutality. Although Gordon had a passion for topics in the entertainment industry she said much like Martin Luther King Jr. it took an unfortunate event for her to focus on the violence in our culture and began to share it through her writing.
"When Michael Brown died it was a term for me when I realized that simply being an English teacher, or a seminary student wasn't enough," said Gordon.
Gordon then being to challenge students of FAMU to become "passive participants,” by actively being present in their communities and being a voice of their generation.
Kenidee Webster, a first-year business administration student from Tallahassee and freshman class president said that she believes this generation is full of passive participants it is just up to us to actually participate.
"I think it has to affect our households, our educational systems, and basically our futures to become more passionate about the issues going on in the world," said Webster.
Much like Dr. King, Gordon uses her voice to stand up for those without a voice and inspires those afraid to use their voice through her writing and speeches delivered to many around the world.
FAMU’s president Elmira Mangum said in the release statement that “Dr. King’s contributions to the world embody the spirit of FAMU and that is the spirit of resilience, the spirit of empowerment, and the spirit of giving. Ms. Gordon is also a great example of this spirit, and we are excited to have her visit FAMU and inspire our community.”
Gordon closed her speech telling others to be a light as Dr. King was and do the justice even if it wasn't in your plan.