Reaching goals is no reason to slow the momentum of the civil rights struggle, retired judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore told a capacity crowd at UGA’s seventh annual Freedom Breakfast on Jan. 15.
Speaking on what would have been Martin Luther King Jr.’s 81st birthday, Moore urged attendees of the event, which honors King’s life and legacy, to embrace the fight against today’s inequalities with the same tenacity that previous generations used to gain equal rights for African Americans.
“We ask ourselves if we have truly reached that pinnacle, the promised land. Some say we live in a post-racial era—after all, Barack Obama has been elected president of the greatest country in the world. But I would say that the struggle continues,” she said. “I know it’s painful for us to remember, but it wasn’t that long ago when there were colored water fountains and white water fountains.”
Moore knows the struggle first-hand. In her lifetime, she saw the Ku Klux Klan burn her family’s home and went on to serve as the first woman appointed to the benches of the municipal and city courts of Atlanta.
Her keynote address reflected the event’s theme, “The Power of the Dream—Where Do We Go From Here.”
“I think that Dr. King would tell us today to keep lifting each other up,” she said. “While we here today have had the opportunity to see the promised land, there are people out there right now who don’t have that opportunity, and we have to bring them along.”
The event also recognized recipients of the President’s Fulfilling the Dream Awards, which are given annually to individuals at the university and the community who continue the work of King’s dream through their actions. This year’s winners were Angela Denise Gay, Willie James and Pamela Kleiber.
Gay, a social worker in the Athens-Clarke County School System, is a native Athenian who graduated from Cedar Shoals High School in 1988. She graduated from UGA with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work. She also serves as assistant director of the Young Women’s Christian Organization’s Girls Club Camp for girls ages 5–14.
James, a bailiff in Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, has spent a lifetime committing himself to social justice. He has provided housing for displaced Hurricane Katrina victims, donated more than 70 pints of blood to the Red Cross, contributes bikes to Bike Athens and regularly gives food and toys to the needy.
Kleiber developed the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities within the UGA Honors Program, which provides an inclusive community of young scholars who represent diverse fields of study, geographic regions, racial and ethnic backgrounds and genders. As the associate director of CURO, she has crafted civil and deliberative conversations in the classroom and community on national and international issues such as racial and ethnic tension, poverty and freedom of speech.
