By Alexie Villegas Zotomayor
Variety Features Editor

“DON’T ever underestimate the difference one determined woman can make.”
This is the challenge issued by guest speaker Dean Cynthia Nance as she talked about education and the empowerment of women through the civil rights movement in the inaugural Martin Luther King Jr. Day held at the American Memorial Park theater on Monday. Speakers before her talked about Martin Luther King’s dream and legacy as people of various colors banded together in furtherance of King’s dream.
Offering her sincerest gratitude to the people of the Northern Mariana Islands for the hospitality, Dean Nance said, “Let me offer you my sincere heartfelt thank you for amazing and gracious hospitality. I can honestly say that I have never been as warmly received and as well treated as I have been during my visit to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.”
She said it was her honor to be invited “to commemorate with you the life of a leader, of a civil rights movement whose efforts have changed America,” and she wondered what Dr. King would have thought of the people today.
“I think my host Joe Hill is right, when he wrote in his letter of invitation saying that Saipan is where east meets west and stands as a living testament to the Martin Luther King dream of racial harmony and diversity for the 30 plus nationalities comprising a population of 60,000. I believe we can certainly take a few lessons from you here on the mainland,” said Dean Nance.
Speaking on the theme “Education and the Empowerment of Women through the Civil Rights Movement,” Dean Nance talked about the experiences of the pioneering women whose involvement in the civil rights movement have changed America.
Heaping praises on the the leadership of the civil rights movement, Dean Nance said, “Behind the scenes even as King spoke words of equality and words of a dream that became a mantra for an oppressed people, there was a demand for recognition from the women who helped organize and galvanize the many marchers and participants — those women were not allowed to speak.”
Nance cited the speech delivered by National Council for Negro Women president Dorothy I. Height who talked about the clamor among the women participants of the march in Washington to be heard.