The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr Program in the College of Liberal Arts established the MLK graduation cord in 2017 to acknowledge the graduates of the MLK program that apply and meet the criteria for the distinguished cord. This symbolic cord is a representation of academic achievement, career readiness, and active participation in activities and or events sponsored by the MLK Program, our campus partners, and various community organizations that they have engaged with locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.
The colors of the MLK graduation cord are black, white and blue. Black and white represents an age-old signal of servitude and humility which aligns with Rev. Dr. King’s beloved community. Rev. Dr. King wrote “the aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, so that when the battle is over, a new relationship comes into being between the oppressed and the oppressor.” The Beloved Community was not a lofty utopian goal to be confused with the rapturous image of the Peaceable Kingdom, in which lions and lambs coexist in idyllic harmony.
It was Dr. King’s global vision in the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it in which all peoples can share in the wealth of the earth. With Rev. Dr. King’s vision as a guide, the color blue was chosen to represent international human rights.
The staff of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Program thanks our scholars for their commitment to learning and engaging in the work of diversity, equity, inclusion, justice and self-agency for socially responsible leadership during their tenure at the University of Minnesota. Our goal is to empower our scholars as they grow in the quest of becoming conscious global citizens