‘We can’t destroy diversity,’ MLK keynote speaker tells audience at VCU

By Haley Tenore

Invoking the sound, spirit and message of the civil rights icon, the keynote speaker of Virginia Commonwealth University's weeklong celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. told an audience Thursday evening that "all creation is diverse, and nothing exists in isolation."

"We can't destroy diversity," said John Kinney, Ph.D., professor of theology at Virginia Union University and director of its Center for African American Pentecostalism and Leadership Development.

Held at the Institute for Contemporary Art, the keynote celebration was a highlight of MLK Celebration Week 2025, organized by VCU's Division of Community Engagement. Kinney pulled themes from his youth, his decades of teaching and preaching, and his - and the audience's - reverence for King's legacy in encouraging steadfast commitment to equality.

The keynote event centered around a quote by MLK - "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends" - and Kinney acknowledged the challenge it continues to present, nearly 60 years after King's assassination.

Kinney noted the searing pain one feels when others "give every indication that they're walking with you in a pilgrimage leading toward a shared destiny and common destination - only to discover that they indicated something to which they will not invest their person, their vote, their time or their energy, and that breaks your heart."

But "Dr. King reminds us you can never allow finite disappointment to steal your infinite hope," said Kinney, who has been affiliated with VUU for several decades and also has taught and lectured in many states as well as Africa.

Kinney also has been a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Beaverdam for over 40 years, and he imbued his Thursday address with energy and passion drawn from experience.

VCU's Black Awakening Choir helped set the tone for Thursday's keynote event at the Institute for Contemporary Art. (P. Kevin Morley, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

"I remind people all the time," he said, using an image attributed to 13th-century theologian Rumi, that "you are not a drop in the ocean; the ocean is in your drop - which means that invested in you is the very nature presence and power of the creative source."

Kinney's focus areas include addressing racism, sexism and materialism, and amid ongoing racial injustices, he emphasized how diversity is both crucial in the present day and at the core of humanity.

"No two zebras or tigers have the exact same stripes. No two leopards have the exact same spots," he said. "Do you realize no two snowflakes that fell in this country had the exact same design, no two leaves have the exact same vein pattern?"

Kinney went back to his youth to conclude his address. He said segregation might sometimes feel like history, but its lessons - and King's - endure. He recalled his days attending an all-Black elementary school in West Virginia, including a classroom session that touched on practicing multiplication tables.

He said he laughed at another student who gave an incorrect answer. So the teacher made Kinney stay back during lunch and recess - so that he could tutor his fellow student.

"You can't call yourself a success," Kinney said, "when you're laughing at somebody who's failing."

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