Perseverance, valuing others and a renewed focus on education will help uphold American greatness, said Dr. Benjamin Carson, Sr. during his keynote speech Monday, a part of Northwestern’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration.
Carson, the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, spoke in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall at noon to a crowd of about 800 people, according to Richard Van Kleeck, the director of concert activities for The Bienen School of Music.
Carson is a professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery and pediatrics at the John Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md. He performed the first and only successful separation of conjoined twins joined at the back of the head in 1987. In 2001, CNN and TIME magazine named Carson as one of America’s 20 foremost physicians and scientists. Carson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in June 2008, the country’s highest civilian honor. The NAACP also awarded the doctor the 2006 Spingarn Medal, the association’s highest honor.
Carson said Americans must maintain perseverance, which Dr. King exemplified. During the speech Carson also stressed preservation of morals.
“Are we in the process of throwing away our moral compass?” he asked.
Carson prefaced his address by explaining his disagreement with political correctness, which he said silences people’s speech.
“The real emphasis should be on learning to be respectful of those with whom you disagree,” Carson said. Today, he said, “It’s virtually impossible to talk to a large audience without offending someone.”
Carson, who is black, said he recalls watching violence against civil rights advocates on television as a boy. Those experiences taught him about sacrifice, he said.
“If those people were going to sacrifice that much, I had to take advantage of it,” he said. “(King) would never throw in the towel.”
The doctor also discussed his childhood, during which he struggled academically.
Carson’s mother, Sonya Carson, who had a third-grade education, raised him and his brother after she and Carson’s father divorced.
“There was never money for anything,” Carson said. “She was working two or three jobs at a time.”
Despite her workload, Carson said his mother modeled how to never give up. A self-reliant woman, she would buy shirts at Goodwill and then patch up the sleeves, he said. Part of her philosophy was, “‘I never saw anybody go on welfare and come off of it,'” Carson told the audience.
Carson, a Yale graduate who then attended the University of Michigan Medical School, also explained how his mother pushed him to read more, which greatly improved his school performance. He then stressed that in the United States today, education standards must be raised.
“There was a time when our education system was the envy of the world,” the Michigan graduate said. “We have dumbed the thing down so much.”
Carson himself advocates the importance of education. He is president and co-founder of the Carson Scholars Fund, which honors students for outstanding academic and humanitarian achievements. The fund sets up Carson Reading Rooms in schools across the country to promote books and education.
The event also included music from NU’s Jazz Small Ensemble, the Alice Millar Chapel Choir and the Northwestern Community Ensemble, as well as remarks from Dean of Students Burgwell Howard, University President Morton Schapiro and Evanston mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl.
Sue Weaver, who attended the speech, emphasized its overall relevance.
“I was very impressed,” she said. “I thought it was on point, absolutely needed for this day and time.”
Tracey Gibson-Jackson, chairwoman of this year’s MLK Planning Committee for NU’s Evanston campus, said Carson shows how people can challenge odds.
“He has overcome so much adversity,” she said. “So we felt he was a perfect fit to speak to not letting your situation or your path, if you’re on a rough one, define who you are.”
