WS Chronicle

Over the years, some big names have delivered keynote addresses at The Chronicle’s Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast – Dr. Maya Angelou, Judge James A. Beaty, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, and N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green, to name a few. However, few speakers have been as thought-provoking and informative as Corey D.B. Walker, who delivered this year’s keynote address.

A native of Norfolk, Virginia, Walker is the dean of Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity, a professor of humanities, and the inaugural director of the university’s African American Studies program.
Before taking the stage, Walker expressed gratitude for the honor of speaking at home.

“It’s always an honor to be able to speak at home, and it’s always an honor when your community recognizes you,” Walker said. “To be able to share with those closest to you, who have been with you and continue to support you in countless ways, is probably one of the deepest honors of my life.”

To begin his address, Walker quoted German philosopher Walter Benjamin: “The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the state of emergency in which we live is not the exception but the rule.”

Walker said the quote forces us to face the uncomfortable truth that the world is in constant crisis. He urged the audience to grasp Dr. King’s dream and resist reducing his vision of justice to a mere symbol or hashtag.

“This challenge demands we resist reducing King to a mere symbol or a comforting slogan,” Walker said. “Instead, it calls us to wrestle with the full depth and complexity of his vision – a vision that compels us to reckon with our most urgent and pressing societal crises. Only then can we respond to the state of emergency in our time with unwavering courage, clarity and an uncompromising commitment to justice.”

Walker added that King’s legacy is often contained within the boundaries of an idealized American democracy which, in many ways, does an injustice to his life’s work.

“It freezes his moral and ethical stance into something palatable for the mainstream political order and spiritualizes his mission to legitimize the status quo, masking his righteously disruptive message that challenges all of us,” Walker said.

He noted that King’s image as a champion of nonviolence and unity became sanitized after his assassination in 1968. To illustrate this, Walker recited Carl Wendell Hines Jr.’s poem “A Dead Man’s Dream”:

“Now that he is safely dead, let us praise him, 
Build monuments to his glory, 
Sing hosannas to his name. 
Dead men make such convenient heroes.”

Walker said King’s push for equity and equality wasn’t for political comfort or psychological solace – it was rooted in being radical and serving humanity.

Walker then drew parallels between King’s vision and Winston-Salem’s history, referring to the city’s “twin minds” that shape its identity. He said addressing today’s challenges requires understanding Winston-Salem’s entire history, including the often-overlooked struggles and injustices.

“The images of R.J. Reynolds, the Moravian Church, and Wake Forest University dominate the historical narrative of Winston-Salem, but that doesn’t tell the entire story,” Walker said. “This is just one story – a heroic and one-dimensional version of our city’s past. Beneath this narrative lies a story of ongoing revolt and rebellion.”

Walker highlighted moments in the city’s history that reflect this narrative of resistance, including the Winston-Salem Riots of 1895, the attempted lynching of Russell High in 1918, and the 1960 sit-in movement led by students from Winston-Salem State University and Wake Forest. He also discussed the 1967 rebellion that followed the police killing of James Eller.

After Eller’s death, protests erupted, culminating in three days of demonstrations and the deployment of the National Guard. Walker described the protests as a manifestation of the community’s “righteous anger.”
In connecting these local events to King’s broader message, Walker referenced King’s 1967 “Beyond Vietnam” speech, delivered at Riverside Church in New York City. In that speech, King criticized the Vietnam War and pointed out the hypocrisy of Black men fighting for freedoms abroad that they were denied at home.

“In his bold and abrasive Riverside Church speech, King laid bare the interconnectedness between America’s foreign policies and domestic injustices,” Walker said. “He understood that the wars we fight abroad reflect the wars we fight at home. King understood that true peace cannot exist without the deep experience of justice.”
Walker said King’s invitation to change the world through justice and equity requires individuals to reorient their values and reject complacency.

“To accept King’s invitation, we must refuse to adjust to a world of injustice or settle for mere symbols and slogans of reform,” Walker said.

He concluded by challenging the audience to embody King’s vision of “creative maladjustment” and make Winston-Salem a city that prioritizes love, justice and community.

“King’s call for maladjustment is a call to a new life and a new way of living – one that is not content with the status quo,” Walker said. “Winston-Salem, today we have the opportunity to be a city that refuses to prioritize comfort over conviction, pride over principle, or individualism over community. Instead of being tethered to taglines, we can become a community where love, justice and dignity are the very fabric of our existence.”