PINE BLUFF -- The Rev. Bernice King, the youngest child of slain civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., offered words of praise, encouragement and advice to the fall graduating class at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff on Friday morning.
King was the guest speaker for a graduating class that included the first doctoral student at UAPB, an achievement Chancellor Laurence Alexander called "momentous for this university."
"You are an awesome class of student graduates, and today is a day of honor," he said.
Alexander praised Ganesh Karunakaran for receiving his doctorate in aquaculture and fisheries. The department became the first on campus to offer a Ph.D. program in 2012.
Karunakaran also lavished praise on the chancellor, calling him a "visionary."
"The chancellor never missed a chance to shake my hand, even though I know he was always busy. It has been an extreme privilege to see that kind of interaction," Karunakaran said.
University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt thanked students for "lifting me up," adding that "it's an honor to spend the day with you."
"You are prepared to face a future where you will think nimbly and quickly," he said. "This is a very exciting time for you. The faculty members sitting behind you helped you to learn how to compete in the world. Remember these men and women. Consider this not only a job but a calling. And you are their most recent representatives of love for their craft."
To open her speech, King quoted Benjamin Elijah Mays -- a black minister and president of Morehouse College from 1940 to 1967 -- with a booming voice reminiscent of her father's.
Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to the 1958 graduating class of UAPB, then known as Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College, and also evoked Mays' poem God's Minute.
Quoting Mays, Bernice King said: "I've only just a minute, only 60 seconds in it. Forced upon me, can't refuse it. Didn't seek it, didn't choose it, but it's up to me to use it. I must suffer if I lose it, give an account if I abuse it. Just a tiny little minute. But eternity is in it."
King also told graduates there are only two things in life they cannot control: when they are born and when they die.
"The only part you can control is the dash between birth and death," she said. "Every minute of your life counts. When you die, will it matter that you even lived? It's up to you to make your life matter."
King continued: "Do you know what the richest place on earth is? The cemetery. There are so many lives who took dreams, inventions and ideas to the grave.
"You have an opportunity to make every minute of your life matter. You are here for a purpose. There is something in you called stamina. There is something in you called persistence. There is something in you called determination."
King added that with these ideas in place, "the most important thing is your heart. There is a problem you were born to solve. You have to look in yourself to ask, 'What have I been called to do?' Seek to develop your character. Intelligence is character, as my father always said. Stand for truth, honor and integrity in your life. That will be your lasting impact on this earth."
UAPB gave King an honorary doctorate at Friday's ceremony. She serves as executive director of the King Center, which was founded by her mother, Coretta Scott King, in 1968.
Bernice King is a graduate of Spelman College with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology, and she earned her Master of Divinity and doctor of law degrees from Emory University. She also has received an honorary doctorate of divinity degree from Wesley College.
In his brief remarks, University of Arkansas board of trustees member Dr. Stephen Broughton recalled how Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at his 1958 graduation ceremony and said he was honored to hear his daughter speak.
Broughton encouraged students to "get everything you earned, because you deserve it. Your education is second to none. Always go forward, because the Lord will carry you where you need to be."
State Desk on 12/12/2015