More than 150 people attended SUNY Oneonta’s commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, Jan. 27 featuring keynote speaker Bettie Mae Fikes, a singer and civil rights activist known as “the Voice of Selma.”
A native of Selma, Alabama, Fikes joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at age 16 and participated in Bloody Sunday, when state and county law enforcement officers attacked a nonviolent march for voting rights in Selma in 1965.
Later on, Fikes performed as a core member of SNCC’s Freedom Singers. She sang at the 1964 and 2004 Democratic national conventions, as well as Carnegie Hall, the Newport Jazz Festival and the Library of Congress.
Van Havercome, the university’s Center for Racial Justice and Inclusive Excellence associate director, said Bernadette Tiapo, chief diversity officer, selects speakers for the MLK commemoration who represent the African American experience today and historically to get students to engage in what King represents.
Fikes was special “because she really helps us connect to the civil rights movement, because she had a direct connection to Martin Luther King,” Havercome said. “She has a voice that’s so profound, it actually makes us experience a sense of culture.”
Although the national holiday honoring King was last week, the university waited to hold the event until the students returned for the spring semester, which the school also did last year when the guest speaker was Columbia Journalism School Dean Jelani Cobb.
SUNY Oneonta President Alberto Cardelle spoke about the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion and the need to continue advancing those values, acknowledging the challenges faced by DEI programming on college campuses.
He spoke of the university’s role in educating students to be active citizens and critical thinkers, and reaffirmed the school’s commitment to DEI principles, despite external pressures and recent events.
“Despite 60 years of what we thought was progress, we are now in a position once again to defend the collective benefits of diversity, the notion that equity is the cornerstone of justice, and most importantly, that inclusion is not a zero sum game,” Cardelle said.
In her 40-minute talk, Fikes reflected on her participation in the civil rights movement and focusing on the impact of King, whom she called “Uncle Martin.”
She recounted her personal experiences, including the role of the church, the lack of resources in education — she said she and her classmates had to buy textbooks from the basement of the local drugstore discarded by Parrish High School, the white high school in Selma — the brutality she faced during civil rights marches and the sacrifices made by individuals such as King.
She said the current generation may not have a figurehead like King, but the continued fight for equality and the importance of remembering history can inspire them.
“You still have the voice of people who are challenging the wrongness in this world,” Fikes said.
The event opened with breakfast and a performance by Hooked on Tonics, the university’s co-ed student a cappella group.
Fikes was scheduled to meet with university students throughout the day Monday and speak in the evening during the Black History Month kickoff lecture, hosted by SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College.