The annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Dinner was held Wednesday in the Show Me Center with keynote speaker Dr. Mary Frances Berry, an activist and author. The theme of the dinner was “Now is the Time … What Will You Do?”

The dinner began with Student Government Association President Peyton Mogley giving opening remarks and student Kanisha Kellum singing the national anthem.

The STEP UP Leadership Academy gave a performance before Southeast Missouri State University President Carlos Vargas gave his opening remarks.

At last year's dinner, the “Talking Booth” video was released, and this year the university's communications department released “SEMO Talks.”

The video consisted of students and alumni discussing the topic of diversity at Southeast currently and when the alumni attended.

Berry started off by reflecting about what speaking on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday means to her. She spoke about not being able to watch acts of injustice and not do anything about it.

Berry gave her review of the diversity at the university after seeing the “SEMO Talks” video. She commented that the video seems like Southeast has no diversity problems, but there is still a lot of work to do.

She also spoke about what voting has meant in the past and what it means now. She gave a call to action to the audience members to run for office even locally to affect change.

Senior Brooke Reeves said Berry’s review of the diversity at Southeast stood out to her.

“One thing I really liked about her, and it kind of put me back a little at first, was she talked about our diversity here at Southeast and she was critical, but not in a bad way,” Reeves said. “But she was like, ‘You have so much work left to do,’ and I really liked that she didn’t come in here and say ‘Thank you, this is a wonderful place, blah blah blah,’ she said ‘You’ve got work to do,’ and then the rest of her speech was so much inspiration, so many different takes on the work that needs to be done still. I think the university as a whole would be very wise to heed some of her words.”

At the end of the dinner, Sonia Rucker, coordinator of institutional equity and diversity, announced a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service from 1 to 4 p.m. on Jan. 21 at the Southeast Missouri Food Bank in Sikeston, Missouri.