Full Circle Moment: In 1986—the year the United States first observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday, Lamont Gordon ’87 was a student listening to Milton’s first-ever MLK speaker. On Tuesday, Gordon returned to campus as Milton’s 2025 MLK speaker. 

That 1986 assembly left quite an impression on Gordon. The speaker that year was Reverend Charles R. Stith. According to Gordon, “Over the last 30 years or so, Stith has been a pretty major figure in promoting economic and political development in Africa, both as an investor and as U. S. ambassador to Tanzania in the late 1990s. In 1986, when Stith was invited to speak at Milton, he was a minister and community leader in Boston who had recently founded a nonprofit organization called ONE, Organization for a New Equality.”

Gordon was so moved and inspired by this assembly that later that year, he and a classmate reached out to Reverend Stith to ask if they could do their senior project at ONE. Reverend Stith accepted their proposal. For their senior project, they conducted research, analyzed data, participated in focus groups, and contributed to the organization’s work in tangible ways. “It was one of the best experiences that I had at Milton. As I reflect back on that time, I’m reminded of the pivotal role that Milton played in my personal and intellectual development. It was a time when I was beginning to figure out who I was, my place in the world, my values, and what was important to me,” he said.