Public memory, personal voice

Delivered as part of the keynote address at Lewis & Clark’s 2007 commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, the following words challenge our enshrined memories of the man and his “I Have a Dream” speech:

“Today we remember that speech for the dream, but King meant for that speech to narrate a nightmare. Today we remember King’s optimism, but we seem incapable of acknowledging his outrage. The angry, acerbic, realistic King has been lost in the shadows of his dream.”

These strong and provocative words were consciously chosen by Mitch Reyes to “free Dr. King’s legacy from the manacles of the dream,” so that together we might “begin again the journey towards racial reconciliation.”

An assistant professor of communication at Lewis & Clark, Mitch Reyes pushes that long journey forward through his teaching and research on public memory. He analyzes how and why societies form specific memories around some people and events while developing collective amnesia about others. The work fosters a deeper understanding of the values and practices that inform society, influence public policy, and shape national identity.

“Remembrance is essential for building communities and sharing traditions across differences,” he says. “Deciding who and what is worthy of remembering, and why, and in what ways, raises issues critical to democratic citizenship and reveals the public values that we as a people think are important.”

With an intellectual curiosity and academic sensibility first stirred by a “terrific second-grade teacher who let us challenge ourselves at different levels,” Reyes has long been questioning conventional wisdom and affirming hard truths. His questions and truth-telling compel students and society to acknowledge where and when the American experience has fallen short of its promise, the better to restore that promise. As he also said in commemorating Martin Luther King: “We must be willing to place the power of forgiveness in the hands of those we have long since wronged.”