Every person faces his or her own “Battle of Jericho,” Maya Angelou told the winners of this year?s Martin Luther King Award for Community Service at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Friday.
“Because of the walls of Jericho, each one of us has faced and each one of us has overcome, we can be here today,” she said, before recounting African-Americans? history in this nation.
However, as she continued her address, the world-renowned author, poet and director?s meaning shifted: “Each one of us is a Jericho” to others. “Bring down your walls.”
The award ? honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. ? was given to 10 employees known for their community and civil rights service, according to a Johns Hopkins release.
Angelou applauded the recipients for their courage. “You came here to make a difference. In order to do that, you have to have some courage,” she said. “The challenge upon each of us is to make of our country morethan it is today ? to make it more than what James Baldwin called ?these yet-to-be-United States.? ”
The ceremony marked the 25th year of the Martin Luther King Award at Hopkins, said Dr. Levi Watkins, professor of cardiac surgery who launched the first commemoration in 1982.
“Not many things made by men last 25 years. This program has lived and survived because the man we honor and the principles he [served] were made of the right stuff,” Watkins said.
There?s still a long way to go.
Medical Dean Edward Miller acknowledged as much, saying the university held a town hall meeting Thursday “to discuss very openly the troubling issues of diversity at Johns Hopkins.”
In October, racial tensions boiled over a “Halloween in the Hood” theme party, which led to the suspension of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
Angelou offered a simple suggestion for continuing King?s legacy from one person to another every day ? reaching out to the people you meet, rather than recoiling from them.
She cited simple everyday courage like speaking to someone you don?t know on an elevator or in public. “You have no idea what you might do for that person. … For a moment, you?ve lifted them.”
