SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — It's been just over 60 years since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech at Cal Western University, which is now Point Loma Nazarene University. The university set up a kiosk to commemorate the May 1964 speech.
Now, Dr. King's words have the chance to echo through the school's Golden Gym once again.
"Actually this was a year after his ‘I have a dream’ speech," said Dr. Walter Augustine, the Associate Vice President of Diversity and Belonging at Point Loma Nazarene University. "In his topic here of remaining awake through a great revolution, one of the things Dr. King is acknowledging is the long history of the fight for freedom for African-Americans in this nation."
At that time, Dr. King was advocating for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was signed into law just two months later.
"One of the things he said in that speech that I thought was amazing is that he said this is not just a sectional problem, this a national problem," said Dr. Augustine. "Being able to talk about the scope of the movement being on a national level."
The location of the kiosk is pretty important, because it's exactly where Dr. King stood as he gave the speech in 1964. The crowd was roughly 5,000 people, filling the gymnasium.
"So his work here was a continuation of the acknowledgment that that work is ongoing," said Dr. Augustine. "That we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal."
The installation is now a permanent part of the Golden Gym at Point Loma Nazarene University. The school encourages you to come and take a look.
