Rev. Dr. Kenneth R. Kemp is pastor of San Antonio’s Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. Credit: Courtesy Photo / Trinity University

The message of Martin Luther King Jr. is vital as ever, even though President Donald Trump’s reelection shows an alarming public hostility to it, said Rev. Dr. Kenneth R. Kemp, who will give Trinity University’s annual MLK Lecture this Thursday.

“The substance of my discussion … is to consider what Dr. King and the people of his generation advocated for at that time, and how it’s being systematically and intentionally chipped away and reversed,” Kemp told the Current. “I am absolutely certain that had Dr. King lived to be 96 — which is the age he would’ve been on Jan. 15 — he would be absolutely appalled. There’s no other way to look at it.”

A medical doctor and Army veteran, Kemp serves as pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in San Antonio. His keynote speech at Trinity’s Parker Chapel will focus on the fallen civil rights leader’s creation of civil discourse through civil disobedience. Members of the Antioch’s choir and vocalists from the university also will perform musical selections at the event.

In remarks to the Current, Kemp said powerful figures including Trump, Texas Republican leaders and the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court have decimated the Voting Rights Act, demonized marginalized people and suppressed meaningful discussions of racism and its impact on the nation.

“The legacy of Dr. King is now being systematically dismantled,” Kemp said. “However, I believe we have to respond with determination and not with despair. Because if we simply say, ‘OK, there’s nothing we can do about it,’ then it’s going to get worse instead of getting better.” Kemp said those who value King’s message and desire to uphold civil rights must raise their voices and hold leaders accountable at the ballot box.

“We, who are the beneficiaries of Dr. King’s dream have to now say, ‘There are challenges, but this is not the end,'” he said. “Because what defines us as Americans — not Black Americans or Native Americans or white Americans — but what defines us as Americans are some fundamental values. Those fundamental values of consideration for the poor, the lost, the left out, the immigrant — of making sure that everybody has economic opportunity in this country — those are fundamental to who we are, and that will not change.”

He added: “That will, in my opinion, still be our guiding light four years from now, eight years from now or 100 years from now, when you and I are both resting in our graves.”

Free, 7:30 p.m., Trinity University, Margarite B. Parker Chapel, 1 Trinity Place #69, trinity.edu.

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This article appears in Jan 22 – Feb 4, 2025.

Sanford Nowlin is editor-in-chief of the San Antonio Current. He holds degrees from Trinity University and the University of Texas at San Antonio, and his work has been featured in Salon, Alternet, Creative...