ITHACA, N.Y. -- When Yolanda King, the eldest child of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, visited the Cornell campus last February and performed "Open My Eyes, Open My Soul: Discovering the Power of Diversity" in Sage Chapel, she received a standing ovation from the audience. That visit has now garnered the James A. Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony for the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Committee, which organized the event.

The prize was awarded in a special ceremony April 29 in the Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room. Rev. Kenneth I. Clarke Sr., committee chair and director of Cornell United Religious Work, accepted the award on behalf of the committee.

"On behalf of the [committee], I accept this year's Perkins Prize with profound gratitude and with a great deal of humility," Clarke said, as he accepted a framed certificate from President Jeffrey S. Lehman '77. "I think I speak for the committee in saying that we are honored to [receive this award]."

Established in 1994 by Thomas W. Jones '69, MRP '72, the Perkins Prize annually awards $5,000 to "the program or organization making the most significant contribution to furthering the ideal of university community while respecting the values of racial diversity." This year the prize was expanded to include two honorable-mention winners, each of whom received $1,000: the Daniel Pearl Music Day: Harmony for Humanity event, and the Applied Economics and Management Diversity Program.

The Perkins Prize is named for President Emeritus James A. Perkins. During his six years in office, Perkins made minority recruitment a priority, establishing both the Committee on Special Educational Projects (COSEP) and the Africana Studies Program. Because of his efforts, the number of black students enrolled at Cornell increased to more than 250 from under 10 between 1963 and 1969.

"It is clear that with [Perkins'] decision to increase significantly the enrollment of African Americans and other minority students at Cornell, our university laid the groundwork for interracial understanding on which we continue to build," Lehman said in his opening remarks.

While acknowledging that Cornell is "not yet a multiracial utopia," Lehman emphasized the tremendous gains in student diversity that have been achieved since Perkins' tenure. Specifically, he mentioned that the university currently has more than 18,000 living minority graduates, and the number of self-reporting minority graduates has doubled over the past 10 years. "Today, all of us can be proud of the many ways that Cornell is working to make the university meaningfully integrated," he said.

For members of the Perkins Prize selection committee, deciding between the 11 programs that were nominated "was difficult because we had so many fine applicants," said Michele Moody-Adams, the Hutchinson Professor of Ethics and Public Life. In the end, she added, the King Committee was selected because of the "very broad number of people that were reached and the long-term ramifications that it will have for the community."

Established in 2003, the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Committee brings together faculty, staff, students and community members to plan and implement an annual event celebrating King's life and work. The committee brought Yolanda King to campus Feb. 15. Another member of the selection committee, Kent Hubbell '67, the Robert W. and Elizabeth C. Staley Dean of Students, added that the event "drew together the Cornell community and the Ithaca community in a way that seemed to be incredibly powerful."

In his acceptance speech, Clarke mentioned that the Perkins Prize was one of three diversity-related events taking place on campus that weekend. The others included the 35th anniversary of the Africana Studies and Research Center and the landmark Mosaic conference for minority alumni and students. "These three events ... all are tributaries that run into a larger river," he explained. "[It's] a river that addresses issues of interracial understanding ... a river that builds upon our diversity and connects us in community."

Clarke also spoke of the vision that King and Perkins shared of a diverse community that was able to live together in harmony. "We, I think, can all be inspired today to continue to build such a community ... an interrelated community built on principles of love and justice," he said.

Courtney Potts is an intern in the Cornell News Service.