Political activist Angela Davis speaks about racism, criminal justice reform, among other topics during MLK Celebration Dinner

Many Americans today remember a sanitized version of Martin Luther King Jr., said Angela Davis, keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Dinner, held Wednesday night at the Show Me Center on the Southeast Missouri State University campus in Cape Girardeau.

King was a disturber of unjust peace, Davis said, who “talked about the triple evils of racism, militarism and materialism, which I take to be a euphemism for capitalism,” Davis said.

Davis met King in 1966, she said, in an elevator, and told him she appreciated the work he was doing.

But, she said, King would have been the first to say the movement was far greater than its spokespeople.

The civil rights movement, or, as Davis said, “the mid-20th century Black freedom movement,” was one element in a broad spectrum of issues, and the struggle for freedom continues today, she said.

Broadway musical theater performer Quentin Oliver Lee sings during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Dinner on Wednesday at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.TYLER GRAEF

Davis spoke of her support to abolish the prison-industrial complex, calling the system “the negative side of freedom.”

Before the abolition of slavery, Davis said, “White people could look at Black people and realize they were free because they were not enslaved. We (now) know that we are free because ... we are not imprisoned.”

Davis said imprisonment disproportionately targets people of color, and the population of women in prisons is increasing.

She said racism, militarism, heteropatriarchy, global warming, criminalization of immigrants, gun violence and so on, are not discrete issues; they’re interconnected.

“Freedom is a constant struggle,” Davis said.

Davis said she is “very impressed” with the enthusiasm and passion of young people, who are working to address these issues.

“(Young people) teach us that there’s hope, and this hope must be continually regenerated and reinvigorated. That is our collective challenge today,” Davis said.

Throughout her decades of public speaking, Davis has supported social justice issues, criminal justice reform and gay rights, while opposing issues such as the Vietnam War, the war on terror, the death penalty, racism and sexism, according to the university.

The 75-year-old scholar and civil rights activist has authored 10 books and lectured internationally. Her recent works include “Are Prisons Obsolete?” which focuses on the prison-industrial complex, and “Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement.”

Davis was a supporter of the Soledad Brothers — three inmates who were accused of killing a prison guard at Soledad Prison — in the early 1970s, when she became the third woman to be placed on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list for her involvement in Jonathan Jackson’s attack on a courtroom Marin County, California.

Wednesday’s sold-out event saw more than 1,200 attendees at the Show Me Center, said university spokeswoman Ann Hayes.

Singer Quentin Oliver Lee performed two songs: “Song to the Dark Virgin,” a poem by Langston Hughes set to music by Florence Price, and “Make Them Hear You,” from the musical “Ragtime.”

Southeast has several events planned for Black History Month. More information is at semo.edu/mlk/events.

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