Furman University’s MLK Community Breakfast served as a reminder that community starts with us.

The annual event was hosted Jan. 16 in the Younts Conference Center, bringing together students, faculty, staff and guests to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of building the “beloved community.” The morning’s guest speaker was Justice Leona Theron, judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

Members of the Furman University Gospel Ensemble and the Clemson University Gospel Ensemble perform during the MLK Community Breakfast. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.

“It’s good to see our students engaged with leaders who are shaping justice around the world,” said Furman President Elizabeth Davis. “This will be their beloved community to care for very soon.”

Theron told the crowd gathered on campus Friday that she grew up as a neighbor to the future activist and South African statesman, Nelson Mandela. From an impoverished background under apartheid rule, Theron rose to the country’s highest court with a history of leading judgements and adamant defenses of women’s rights.

“Both of our countries have a legacy of exclusion, discrimination and oppression, the remnants of which both countries are dealing with today,” she said.

The struggle to achieve justice for all people was one King and Mandela both dedicated their lives to: A vision of reconciling the nations’ histories with their democratic values today. That struggle, Theron said, begins with each person making a difference in their own communities.

Health sciences major and Joseph Vaughn Scholar Amiya Young ’26 took this lesson to heart after a Cultural Life Program series she attended on civil rights activist Ella Baker.

A guest stands to clap along as the Furman University Gospel Ensemble and the Clemson University Gospel Ensemble perform during Furman’s MLK Community Breakfast. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.

“Her blueprint shows us that in the house we build, everyone has a voice and everyone has a chance to lead,” Young said. That requires open discourse where everyone realizes they have something to learn, which she’s seen in Furman’s Intergroup Dialogue Program and through the On Discourse initiative.

“In these spaces, titles mean less than our shared identities,” Young said.

The campus community will continue to honor King’s legacy of community-building on this year’s MLK Day of Service. Students wanting to lend a hand through the Heller Service Corps can gather at 12:30 p.m. Jan. 19, in the Trone Student Center Watkins Room for on and off-campus service work.