LEWISTON — On the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jamil Drake urged the congregants of Bates College’s interfaith service to remember King’s struggles and the entirety of his fight for civil rights. 

Drake, a previous visiting professor at Bates and current assistant professor of religion at Florida State University, was asked to give a speech Sunday at the college. 

His speech, “The Irony of American Celebration,” highlighted the cherry-picked history for which King is widely remembered and celebrated. 

Drake said that King’s remembrance “is often confined to to the steps of the Lincoln memorial and extracted the last minutes of his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.” 

King’s true struggle and civil rights fight is often toned down or extracted from the social climate in which it existed, Drake said.

This “ironically undermined what King stood for in the latter half of his civil-rights fight,” Drake said. 

He compared King’s civil rights fight to those of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s and Black Lives Matter, saying people during King’s time viewed his fight in a similar way. 

Many people disagreed with King and did not agree with how he protested, Drake said. 

“What King are you choosing to remember? The celebrated King?,” he said. “We must reclaim the radical, confrontational, courageous, evolving and fallible King.”

In addition to Drake’s speech, Sunday night’s service included a dance from Bates senior Grace Ingabire and several musical performances.

Rabbi Sruli Dresdner and members of Temple Shalom of Auburn performed a song that Dresdner said is more than 1,000 years old. 

The Gospelaires performed a rendition of “Break Every Chain,” by Will Regan, and the audience joined together to sing hymns throughout the service. 

The evening ended with a communal candle lighting and another performance from The Gospelaires of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which the congregation joined.

Bates College has several events scheduled for Monday in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, including a keynote address by Spencer Foundation President PNa’ilah Suad Nasirat at 9 a.m. at Peter J. Gomes Chapel, and the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays Debate at 3:45 p.m. at the Olin Arts Center concert hall.

Trisha Kivugi, right, lights fellow singer Megan Guymes’ candle Sunday night. The two sang with the Gospelaires Bates College’s 2018 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Service at Peter J. Gomes Chapel. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

Dr. Jamil W. Drake speaks Sunday night at Bates College’s 2018 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Service at Peter J. Gomes Chapel. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)