Let’s draw on the defiant wisdom of Frederick Douglass as Trump carries out a blitzkrieg against democracy in the US.

It is painfully clear that President Donald Trump is attempting to whitewash America’s past. He is glossing over the worst chapters of our history and once again relegating certain Americans — meaning Americans who do not look and think like him — to minor roles.

Our ancestors are watching us, and they’re cheering us on,” Joan Walls said addressing dinner guests Saturday at the 59th annual Lincoln-Douglass-King Banquet. “But they never gave up. They never got tired.

A public theologian and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, Barber delivered the University’s 2025 Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture with wide-ranging reflections on U.S. history, poverty and policy.