Dr. Damon A. Williams returned to UVM to give the University’s Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration’s keynote lecture on Jan. 25 at Ira Allen Chapel.

Williams spoke at UVM in 2022 for the same celebration with a lecture titled “Looking Back, and Looking Ahead: Manifesting the Dream of Inclusive Excellence.”

He was hired when the original speaker, Rev. Nelson Johnson, was no longer able to give the lecture due to unforeseen circumstances, according to promotion of the lecture.

The title of Williams’s lecture was “Creating a Beloved Community,” a theme based on the work of King that encompasses the power of dialogue, humility, empathy and leadership in manifesting equitable communities. 

The theme of “summiting” opened Williams’s lecture as a reference to Dr. King’s “proverbial mountaintop.” 

“To find a pathway to what is and what could be as we manifest this community,” Williams said. 

Williams often spoke of national or university level diversity, equity and inclusion strategies in which he encouraged leadership to employ interdisciplinary and interpersonal approaches. 

He is currently chief catalyst for the Center for Strategic Diversity Leadership and Social Innovation and a senior scholar and innovation fellow at the Wisconsin Equity and Inclusion Laboratory of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, according to UVM’s profile on Williams.

Courage in leadership is necessary in order to not just do what is on the agenda of an entity like a university, but to engage in what is possible by being an ally to those different from oneself, he said. 

“Ask not just what was, but what could be,” he said.

Williams employed many quotes from King in his presentation and connected them with the DEI issues facing the United States today.

Williams said conversations on the DEI, both in personal and in leadership spheres, have greatly increased since 2021. He spoke with an urgency of combating the anti-DEI movement, which he saw as an “onslaught against Dr. King’s work on the beloved community,” he said. 

Roxy Bombardier, in-person attendee and UVM employee, tries to attend all of the MLK celebration lectures and heard Williams speak in 2022. This lecture held a greater sense of urgency to Bombardier due to recent legislation and actions against marginalized groups, she said.

Senior Emily Kline asked Williams a question about her passion for anti-racism at the end of the lecture. 

“That passion for me often turns into a lot of anger. How can you cultivate that kind of forgiveness and love as a way to overpower that anger that I hold with me and that a lot of us hold?” she said.

Williams said to “use faith” to create a beloved community and to stay rooted in self-reflection.