Remembering Coretta King’s Visit to ONU

By Kim Kincaid, The Lima News, Ohio

Feb. 1–ADA — It was the 25th anniversary of the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

At Ohio Northern University, a lobbying effort had been ongoing for a month to persuade Coretta Scott King to speak to the students there about his legacy. “Dr. King’s visit had been a major celebration for us, and we’d had two of his daughters here to speak,” said Adriane Thompson-Bradshaw, dean of students at ONU, who helped persuade Mrs. King to visit the university Jan. 21, 1993.

“But I think what really convinced her to come here was the fact that this school had been one of the last campuses that Dr. King spoke at, on Jan. 11 of 1968, just before he was killed that April,” Thompson-Bradshaw said.

And even though a lot of negotiating had to go into the process, Mrs. King did not disappoint the 500-plus crowd that gathered in Freed Center to see her.

“I think the students were very moved by her appearance here. Normally we host speakers in the chapel, but this one we went to Freed Center because we knew we would have a larger-than-normal group. This was history in the making,” Thompson-Bradshaw said.

And not only students turned out in mass numbers to hear Mrs. King, many people from the surrounding area also came.

No one was disappointed. Those who came got a strong dose of the medicine Mrs. King had doled out for years.

She told the students, “We get what we deserve. We have young people (who are) not even registered to vote. I believe reforms can be enacted. Young people must make a commitment to work for them.”

Shortly after her speech ended, Mrs. King boarded a plane to go to yet another location to preach her message.

Those who met her said that while she was friendly and accessible, she was definitely a woman on a mission.

“I think Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife had a shared vision,” Thompson-Bradshaw said.

“Obviously everyone thinks of her husband, but she never re-married after his death,” Thompson-Bradshaw said. “She carried on his legacy. I guess you could say that his legacy is her legacy too.”

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Lima News, Ohio

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