A member of the Little Rock Nine was the keynote speaker at the Johns Hopkins Medicine's 36th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Friday.
Civil rights and social justice advocate Minnijean Brown Trickey was just a teen when she and eight African-American students were integrated into Little Rock Central High Shool in 1957, under the protection of federal troops.
Years after that historical moment, Trickey has achieved many accolades and continues her commitment to social change.
"We all can contribute to social change. We're obligated to contribute to social change," Trickey said.
Tricky believes if Dr. King was alive today, he would be disappointed with how little things have changed in the social climate.
"I think he would be despondent because we've all put in a life time of work for social change and we appear to be somewhere in the middle ages again," Trickey said.
Previous speakers at the Johns Hopkins Dr. King commemoration include Coretta Scott King, Desmond Tutu, Rosa Parks, Stevie Wonder, Maya Angelou, Dick Gregory, John Lewis, Jesse Jackson, James Earl Jones and Freeman Hrabowski III.
