On Jan. 17, Wayne State University will hold its 25th annual tribute to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Hilberry Gateway. With a theme focused on the 60th anniversary of King’s historic 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery protest marches for voting rights, the WSU celebration, “Sixty Years After Selma and We’re Still Marching,” will feature a keynote address by Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III, senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas. (The event will be streamed on Jan. 20, the official MLK holiday, at wayne.edu/live.)
Rev. Haynes, an educator and social activist who was awarded the 2022 Presidential Lifetime Achievement Leadership Award in Community Service by President Joe Biden, sat down days ahead of the university tribute to share thoughts on King’s legacy, the critical importance of college education, and the role that WSU and other educational institutions play in advancing social mobility, equity and enlightenment.
You’ve got a King Day address upcoming at Wayne State. As you prepare for your speech, can you talk about why you think it’s important that we continue to observe and honor the life and legacy of Dr. King?
REV. FREDERICK DOUGLASS HAYNES III: First, I’m looking forward to sharing. I always have a great time in Detroit and appreciate so much the soul of the city. I don’t think it’s accidental that we have a special gathering in Detroit, because we all know that, in June of ’63, King first tried out “I Have a Dream” in Detroit. I think it’s appropriate that Detroit has a say so in how we commemorate the legacy of Dr. King — but also how we interpret his legacy for this present age.
If all we’re doing is settling for parades, then it’s a charade because this is a time for doing what King did in his life as opposed to just rejoicing in a holiday. The question is: Are we going to make it a holiday, where we celebrate? Or are we going to make it a holy day, where we activate a plan that is reflective of his true prophetic legacy so that we give this country another chance to get it right?
When you look at a school like Wayne State University— a diverse, urban, research-oriented university —what do you consider to be the role of a place like that in the furtherance of Dr. King’s mission? And how would you like to see this role expressed in higher education?
REV. HAYNES: Research, as far as I’m concerned, has always been one of those mechanisms through which we brought about social change. It’s research that produces data-driven movements that tell us, OK, this is what’s wrong. Research, when it’s operating at its best, is consciousness-raising. It — oh, I’m going to use a word that’s not very popular today — research makes us “woke.” And I believe that now we need as never before a great “re-awokening.” It’s a university like Wayne State that gives us an opportunity to not only raise consciousness, but to give us a strategy that is data driven for what we need to do to continue the work that we know good and well is not finished.
That research alone is enough to let us know that there is work that is necessary. And then the other piece for me is[that] a university and higher education have always been that sacred space where we wrestle with ideals, ideas and that opens the door to eras of new possibilities. Yet we have a nation now that is basically waging war on education through book–banning — and not just book–banning but erasure of history. We need a Wayne State University because we not only need research, but we also need to grapple with what truth is.
Speaking of education, in many African American communities especially, we hear a lot of messaging that suggests that a college education and a college degree aren’t as important to success these days. Why does higher education remain critical both in terms of our collective social mobility and our collective progress forward? And how do we counter messaging that would suggest otherwise?
REV. HAYNES: Frederick Douglass said that, when his slave master discovered he was learning how to read and write, he forbade his wife from teaching him. And he interpreted, insightfully, that knowledge unfits one for enslavement. As far as I’m concerned, and forgive me for preaching, he’s piggybacking on Jesus, who said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”
Whenever you devalue education, it sets the stage for where we are right now.
I’ve had too many conversations with people who I love who are my skin folk. And because they’ve received “truth”from social media and the civics IQ is not what it should be, then a number of them chose not to vote in this last election. And that’s just one example of how an imputed ignorance by those in power disempowers those who buy into the imputed ignorance. Since this is Detroit, I might as well quote Big Sean: “A loaded mind is more dangerous than a loaded weapon.” That’s what going to college does for you. It gives you a loaded mind.
And that’s the advantage of a Wayne State University. It’s not accidental that, in the aftermath of enslavement, our ancestors did everything in their power to get an education. It’s not an accident that churches began to birth in their basements what we now know as HBCUs. So, you mean to tell me that our ancestors didn’t have sense when they were doing everything in their power to get an education?
Those in power recognize that there is a correlation between education and being elevated in the world to positions of power. It’s not accidental that just about everyone who’s in a position of power has been to some kind of university that basically provided them a platform and a network. That’s the other piece. It’s not just getting your mind loaded, but it’s also about your exposure, your network that increases your net worth through the opportunity of upper education. You never will hear them say, “You ain’t got to go to college…” Don’t fall for the okie-doke.
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