North Central College’s Pfeiffer Hall was buzzing with activity on Friday, Jan. 23. Looking around, one could spot college students—pen and paper in hand. The large audience was ready to hear Cornel West—keynote speaker at North Central College’s Martin Luther King Jr. week—honor the life and legacy of King.

West is a well-known African American philosopher, activist and professor emeritus in the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University. He is currently a Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary. West is not afraid to voice his opinion; on Friday, he passionately talked on race relations in America and the direction our society has taken.

“We want to situate, contextualize, historicize and most importantly humanize our dear brother Martin,” West said.

According to West, Martin Luther King Jr. was not an isolated figure but part of a tradition. West stressed the importance of past great voices, and he explained that Martin Luther King Jr. was a “wave in an ocean” created by those who made their voices heard searching for justice. Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas and Harriet Tubman were just a few West mentioned.

West’s speech was centered on four main questions raised in W.E.B Du Bois’ novel “The Ordeal of Mansart”: how shall integrity face oppression? What does honesty do in the face of deception? What does decency do in the face of insult? How does virtue meet brute force? Martin Luther King Jr., he added, wrestled with these questions throughout his life.

West emphasized that King lived with integrity, not in the sense of purity but in his permanent commitment to justice. West called on our society to stop being driven by complacency rather than integrity.

King’s main legacy is this commitment to justice. This compels West to denounce a system where residential and school segregation still exists, where “young black and brown poor youth [are] being shot every 28 hours for the last 7 years and they don’t have one federal prosecution” and where “40 percent of young children of color live in poverty in the richest nation in the world.”

He criticized our current society for being obsessed with success and money. He mentioned the lack of help for students in debt leave them with no choices; not even the option to declare bankruptcy. He related this as one example of a model “where Wall Street is bailed out but Main Street is not; when homeowners are caught drifting and yet stock markets break records now year after year.”

Young audience members were challenged to take risks and be courageous.

“Young folk these days, don’t be echoes, be a voice,” West said.

His hour long talk was followed by a Q&A of similar length. Audience members from North Central College (NCC), Evanston and even Gary, Ind. asked his opinion on several topics.

This is the second time West has spoken at Pfeiffer Hall. In 2010 he gave the keynote speech at the celebration of the 50^th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s visit to NCC. In 1960, King spoke at Pfeiffer Hall in Naperville, which at that time was a small town of 12,000 people. West commended North Central College for welcoming Martin Luther King Jr. in a time of tense race relations.