With energy and enthusiasm, Janet Jackson ’75 addressed a packed Weaver Chapel on Jan. 15 during the 2001 Wittenberg Series Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Convocation.

Honored to be speaking at her alma mater, the Columbus city attorney and human rights advocate challenged those present to live their lives in service to others.

“There is no limit to the ways we can serve others; there are only limits on what we are willing to do,” Jackson said in her address titled “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.”

Jackson, who has served on the Wittenberg board of directors since 1989, is an admirable example of the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

The oldest of six children from a family of limited means who grew up on a tobacco farm in rural Charlotte County, Va. and who experienced hate firsthand, Jackson has committed her life to changing people’s perspectives on community and service.

“Service is the rent you pay for living on this earth,” Jackson said, quoting Children’s Defense Fund founder and Class of 1993 Commencement speaker Marion Wright Edelman.

The first woman ever elected to the office of Columbus city attorney, Jackson has devoted her personal and professional life to service.

A former judge and a former Ohio assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Section, Jackson, who received her law degree from the National Law Center at George Washington University, is a leader in the Coalition of Family Violence, chairs the United Way of Franklin County Truancy Task Force, and is a former trustee in several community organizations, including the YWCA and Action for Children.

“A child without a dream is a child without a chance,” Jackson said, calling on those present to work to ensure that every child has access to a quality education.

She also urged listeners to celebrate the diversity that gives people strength, both individually and collectively, and to understand that nothing is more important than individual acts of kindness through service to others and then to act on that understanding.

“These challenges need to be addressed if we are going to respond seriously to Dr. King’s call to break down the social and economic barriers that divide our nation,” Jackson said.

“These are the challenges that define our capacity to make the American Dream a reality, not just for some, but for all.”

An officer of Concerned Black Students and a member of Mortar Board while at Wittenberg, Jackson credits her alma mater for inspiring her to serve. “Wittenberg changed my life,” she said.

“At Wittenberg, I had the opportunity to reach out to others.” It was also here that Jackson said she grew up, adding that service is about growing up.

“It wasn’t a perfect world, but it instilled in me the belief that I could go forward and succeed,” she said. At Wittenberg, Jackson also shared the urgency of King’s words when he exclaimed, “Let us rise up tonight with greater determination.

And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make a better nation.”

“To be sure, we have made significant progress, but Dr. King’s call to each of us is still one of urgency, as well as hope,” Jackson said.

Jackson was the latest in a long line of accomplished speakers to appear at Wittenberg for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Convocation, which became part of the Wittenberg Series in 1991.

Last year, renowned poet and author Nikki Giovanni was the keynote speaker.