Actors Danny Glover and Felix Justice inspired an audience Thursday night, through the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and Langston Hughes.

The lecture was more of a performance, as both Justice and Glover fully assumed the personalities of King and Hughes. Glover used his character to connect with the audience personally, while Justice connected through the powerful words of King.

“When Felix Justice and I began this journey of coming to campuses years ago it was with the intent or engaging young men and women in this dialogue,” Glover said.

The audience found the performance engaging as the room filled with silence and awe at the words of two men. Standing ovations and applause were actions repeated throughout the entirety of the event.

Thursday night’s lecture took place in the Sun Dome. About 600 people attended the event, ULS student director Lindsey Grossman said.
“It was fun, although the turnout was not as great as we might have thought,” ULS student director Amy Bortzfield said.

After the lecture, Felix and Justice held a question and answer session. The topics varied from politics to movies, when one middle school student asked Glover what his favorite character to play.

“Overall, it went very well. I really liked the Q&A because you get more candid responses from the speakers,” Grossman said.

The topics covered in the lecture covered the major political events of King’s time period. Glover spoke about the role of young people, asking for change, in the recent presidential election.

“Change is not an event but a process,” Glover said.
Robert Gray, a senior majoring in economics said that while he wished there would have been more time with Danny Glover, he still enjoyed the event.

“They were both really good. I really liked the MLK speech that Felix did. It was neat to hear it on his birthday,” Gray said. “Also to was good to see the little kids get this experience of history that they probably wouldn’t have otherwise.”