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The CSC Eagle Newspaper – Chadron, NE
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The CSC Eagle Newspaper – Chadron, NE
G Bell, 20, sophomore of New Orleans, holds a sign during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. walk Monday, which began at Common Cents and ended at the Student Center. — Photo by Ashley Swanson
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‘Drum Major Instinct’ sets tone for annual march

Spike Jordan
G Bell, 20, sophomore of New Orleans, holds a sign during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. walk Monday, which began at Common Cents and ended at the Student Center. — Photo by Ashley Swanson
G Bell, 20, sophomore of New Orleans, holds a sign during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. walk Monday, which began at Common Cents and ended at the Student Center. — Photo by Ashley Swanson

Monday’s strong southerly wind accented the crisp January morning, meeting the cheery faces of the sign-holding crowd on Main Street during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial March.

Students and Faculty from CSC and Pine Ridge Job Corps joined community members at the corner of Main Street and Highway 20 and marched to the student center. Laurie Sinn, director for student activities, drove ahead of the crowd, and played one of King Jr.’s speeches from a stereo. All of this matched CSC’s King March from last year. However, this time they broke from tradition.

Instead of the iconic “I Have a Dream Speech,” marchers listened to “Drum Major Instinct,” another of King’s speech. “Drum Major Instinct” was King’s last public speech. He preached it to the filled pews of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, in Feb. 1968, two months before he would be assassinated.

Adapted from ‘‘Drum-Major Instincts,’’ a sermon by J. Wallace Hamilton, King’s speech confronts the “desire to be out front, [the] desire to lead the parade.” This instinct, as King called it, to be the drum major, cultivates an elite attitude. As students marched down Main Street, King’s disembodied voice remarked from the loud speaker, “Do you know that a lot of the race problem grows out of the drum major instinct? A need that some people have to feel superior … and to feel that their white skin ordained them to be first.”

The unorthodox speech, chosen by the Diversity Committee, underscores King’s attitude towards leadership. King did not want to be a drum major, and he asked his congregation, “if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice.”

Sarah Polak and Laurie Sinn, who headed the event, chose the speech for its modern-day relevance. “This speech is not as well-known as the ‘ Have a Dream’ speech,” Polak said, “but it’s just as powerful.”