King Lecture

Describing Martin Luther King as a man "who stood at the votes of the storm and stood fast, "Dr. Samuel D. Proctor, a leader of the Black-American community, addressed a group of about 50 students, faculty, and staff members Wednesday night at the Kennedy School of Government.

Proctor's lecture marks the most recent speech in an ongoing series of lectures on King that have been conducted over the past few years.

Proctor, who is a professor at Rutgers Graduate School of Education, stressed the importance of King's legacy in the '80s and emphasized the optimism of King's vision.

"He summons us to a more excellent way," he said, adding, 'if you could criticize King on anything it was his optimism."

"King faced the novelty" of Black-American dilemmas throughout his life, he added.

Proctor, who met King in the 1950s when King was a student at the Boston University Seminary, earned his doctorate at Boston University.