“Is Dr. King’s Dream Relevant?” asked the Honorable Judge Penny Brown-Reynolds to the packed Campus Center Ballroom. Brown-Reynolds, from the nationally syndicated Television show “Family court with Judge Penny”, was the Keynote Speaker for the Third Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Program, an annual event presented by the Office of Institutional Diversity.

Deirdre H. Rouse, Program Coordinator for Institutional Diversity, has organized the event all three years. There was such a large turn out, that once the initial 200 seats were filled, the event’s staff had to open the adjoining ballroom to accommodate the other students.

The MLK, Jr. event had many students participating in the program. “The Newsies,” University of West Georgia chamber singers, performed “Seize the Day.” Charlotte Cole was “very excited to be performing.”  The College Girls Rock student organization presented the poem “Skin Deep,” and Ebonie Brown danced to “He Is Able.”

In conjunction with the event’s theme of “There’s Still Work to Do: Seize the Day:,” MLK Jr.’s famous speech “Drum Major Instinct”, was quoted by the Fred Curtis, president of SGA, and the UWG NAACP treasurer Tunde Oshakoya.

Brown-Reynolds gave a motivational speech, like the evening’s honoree, Dr. King. She advised the audience that the most important accreditation she has obtained was let off of her biography.

In addition to her accomplishments as a state trial judge in Atlanta, a published author, receiving her Bachelor of Science, Cum Laude in less than three years, and having a Master’s degree in Theology, Brown-Reynolds is an ordained Baptist Preacher.

She emphasized that, like most of the students in attendance, she is a “beneficiary of all that Dr. King did.” She challenged the students to “look in [their] own moral compass to make things better.”

Brown-Reynolds explained to the students her personal background and how she is “defiant about [being successful].” She went further to explain that she was the cleaning lady in the very chambers that one day she would be presiding in.

Her speech, almost a sermon, had many participants shouting “Amen!” and clapping.

Brown-Reynolds concluded her speech by saying “Dr. King’s dream is indeed relevant…There is a destiny you must walk toward.”