MLK Day Message: A Call to Serve

The Fierce Urgency of Now: A Call to Serve

Dear Morgan Family,

As we pause to honor Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we do more than remember a dream. We recognize a life anchored in action, courage, and an unrelenting commitment to justice. Dr. King understood that dreams, no matter how inspiring, are fragile unless sustained by work. He put in the work. He taught us that hope must be carried forward by hands willing to labor, hearts willing to love, and voices willing to speak truth to power.

Education stood at the center of that vision. Dr. King believed deeply in its power to unlock doors, dismantle barriers and affirm human dignity. Here, in a community rooted in scholarship and service, we see that belief made tangible. Progress made real. Momentum earned. Yet history reminds us that advancement is never permanent without vigilance.

Dr. King challenged us to meet the moment. “We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now,” he said—not as a slogan, but as a summons. He rejected the myth that justice will arrive on its own, in its own time. Gradualism, he cautioned, placates the comfortable, prolonging the status quo of inequity. We cannot afford to stand still, to be inactive—socially, civically, politically —neutrality is not safety; it is abandonment.

What, then, does this moment require of us?

It requires servant leadership. Dr. King reminded us that the desire to lead is natural, but leadership divorced from service becomes hollow. “Everybody can be great,” he said, “because everybody can serve.” Greatness, in his measure, is not defined by titles or applause, but by one simple, demanding question: Who are you serving?

To honor Dr. King’s legacy is to answer that question with action. It is to protect access to education, to defend truth, to stand against tyranny and the quiet erosion of equity, and to ensure that progress is not replaced with regress. It is to mobilize not out of fear, but out of responsibility—to one another, to those who came before us, and to those yet to come.

Let’s meet the fierce urgency of now with courage, humility and service, by putting in the work to sustain the legacy of Dr. King, not just today, but every day.

In unity and service,

President David K. Wilson