Marther Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, on the West Side of that beautiful city, to his parents, Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. As a young man, Dr. King was deeply shaped by faith, the church, and an early interest in justice, education, and the dignity of the human person. Those interests matured through his schooling and led him to Morehouse College, where he graduated in 1948 with a degree in sociology. On this day, as we reflect on his legacy, I am struck by how closely anchored his principles and words were to our Catholic faith.
One such anchor is human dignity. Scripture speaks of Imago Dei, that every person is created in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 tells us, “So God created mankind in his own image; in the image of God he created them.” Dr. King’s work was fundamentally about restoring dignity. Educational attainment remains one of the most enduring ways a person can honor that dignity, because it affirms worth, potential, and agency. Here at OLLU, we get to provide students not just degrees, but livelihoods rooted in their values.
Another anchor is education as a moral act, not merely an economic one; the formation of the whole person. Luke 2:52 reminds us, “And Jesus grew in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.” Education forms the mind, heart, character, and skills. Dr. King understood education as essential to both social mobility and moral clarity, and he worked tirelessly to ensure that education would remain a pathway to freedom and responsibility.
A third anchor comes from Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Dr. King famously asked, “Where do we go from here?”, and he asked not out of despair, but as an invitation to all of us, without exception, to think critically, to work meaningfully, to serve faithfully, and to live with dignity. At its essence, the question was directed to every person and every institution: to live into a purpose beyond itself.
Through our work at OLLU, each of us gets to answer that question through the power of education—by forming lives of purpose, dignity, and service for the common good; all the while remaining grounded in faith, guided by purpose, and committed to the dignity of every person we serve.
