Dressed in their green and gold robes, 30 members of the Wilberforce University Choir filled John R. Emens Auditorium with the sound of music during the Unity Week keynote address by Rev. Floyd Flake.
Flake, the president of Wilberforce University in Ohio, came to Ball State University on Thursday to convey a message about changing attitudes in a community to make people more united.
In addition to his presidency at the nation's oldest private black college, Flake is a former U.S. congressman and was the senior pastor of Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York in Jamaica, Queens, for the last 30 years.
Flake's speech was part of an event sponsored each year by the Multicultural Center to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and black students who have excelled in academics at Ball State.
Freshman Jessica Barnette was one of the winners of the African-American Achievement Award.
"It's a great honor, I didn't expect it at all." Barnette said. "It's really good to live in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King and what he wanted for young, black Americans."
During his speech, Flake spoke of his days growing up in Houston when segregation was still a concern. He said he remembered a time when he had to go to the back door of a restaurant to be served, and he had to sleep in a car during road trips because blacks were not allowed in hotels.
Flake told the audience that civil rights need to become a civil responsibility and that people can learn from past experiences.
"Black does not mean inferior, but quality," Flake said. "There is still much to do and all of us share a responsibility to get it done."
Tatum Rucker, a graduate of Wilberforce University and current graduate assistant at the Multicultural Center at Ball State, planned the event that brought Flake to campus.
"He's a great person, and he's very enthusiastic," Rucker said. "As a student, you are a part of something greater and bigger. You are a part of a community, and you are instrumental in making a change. It doesn't just take a few [people] here and there."
Unity is very important within a college environment because of the close-knit surroundings that students live in, Flake said. College students are in the final stage of their education, and they need to develop a kind of attitude that they can take with them to the outside world, he said.
"What you hope is that people learn tolerance," Flake said, "and they learn to look within themselves and take responsibility for their actions, and not only for their own actions, but for whatever kind of groups they are involved in to help them to transition out of mindsets that are so narrowly defined."
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