Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, stood at the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel pulpit and linked his life’s work to a mandate from Martin Luther King Jr.—who gave two speeches from the very same spot.

“Dr. King and lots of folks understood that the only way to have real equality in this country was through education,” Canada said. “Without an education you can’t compete and you cannot be free.” In his keynote speech for the University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration January 12, Canada argued that America’s future lies in quality education for children of all races and social classes.

“You can’t start saying, ‘I’m only going to help some of these folk and the rest of them, we don’t have to worry about.’”

A near-capacity crowd braved the winter’s first snowstorm to attend Canada’s evening address, which was also transmitted via webcast. “For those of us who believe education is the central civil-rights issue of our time, Mr. Canada is an authentic hero,” said Charles Payne, professor in social-services administration and an expert on urban-education reform. In his introductory remarks, Payne said the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) “has changed the national conversation” about what is possible for urban youth with enough support.

Following the HCZ model, some 300 cities and towns nationwide are creating their own “promise neighborhoods,” which provide educational, social, and medical services for children from birth to college, in specific target zones.

Canada focused on the issues that inspired the model and that continue to fuel his activism. “I am convinced that if this country continues to treat [its] children the way they do, we’re going to destroy our great country,” he said. “All of our children are in jeopardy.”

Failing schools and the achievement gap between wealthy and poor students are just two aspects of the problem, he said. The United States has the highest youth-incarceration rates in the world. Thirty percent of high-school graduates lack the academic preparation to pass military entrance exams; 33 percent are too overweight to serve. Kids are the target of marketing campaigns for junk food—a practice Canada called “child abuse.”

“This is an American crisis,” he said. “We have allowed our kids to become essentially vessels for commerce."

The Rockefeller audience included recipients of UChicago’s 2012 Diversity Leadership Awards, as well as educators and activists involved with promise neighborhood projects in four Chicago communities, including Woodlawn.

Canada urged them to continue working at the grassroots to improve struggling schools and not wait for others to deliver solutions. “No one’s coming to save your kids. … Our educational system and our youth-services system is the social-service equivalent of Katrina.”

Mixing personal stories, jokes, and poetry with his remarks on education, Canada often elicited laughter and applause. He said he draws inspiration not only from King and other well-known civil-rights leaders but also from the movement’s rank-and-file protesters who integrated lunch counters and withstood fire hoses. “They didn’t do that because someone was going to celebrate them or give them an award. They did that because they felt that was [their role] to help the next generation live a better life.”

Today educators who want better opportunities for disadvantaged kids must be willing to innovate, he said. “Half of the struggle we’re facing is that people are simply afraid to think differently. Why can’t we try?”

“If we take Dr. King’s dream seriously, we will insist that all these children reach their full potential.”

Did you attend any of King’s three Rockefeller Chapel addresses between 1956 and 1966? Please share your memories in the comments section.