The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day relatively late, but after having two faculty members detained under President Trump's executive order, officials said that discussing social justice was more necessary than ever.

"I came of age in the civil rights movement, in the anti-Vietnam movement, so for me, there was this assumption that we would keep getting better," said Chancellor Peyton Helm in his welcoming remarks on February 3.

Helm introduced engineering professors Mazdak Pourabdollah Tootkaboni and Arghavan Louhghalam, who were detained for three hours on January 28 at Logan International Airport after returning from an academic conference in France. Their offense: the couple is from Iran.

The executive order banned people from seven countries – Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Somalia – from entering the United States for 90 days, which affected the couple's return despite their being lawful, permanent residents of the United States.

We apologize for what I deem to be the “shameful and inappropriate,” said Helm to the professors. He quoted MLK Jr., saying "the moral arch of the world is long, but it bends toward justice," adding "I wish it wasn't so long sometimes."

Helm then turned the mic over to keynote speaker Donovan Livingston, who led the audience with a speech that united themes of voice, history, and hope.

Livingston used his background in history and his love for spoken word to explain that "'now' is an evolving historical moment," and conversation can create change.

"We are not that far from our past... and history has a way of creeping back up on you too," he said, pointing out that the 1960s civil rights movement was only 50 years ago, and that the age of slavery lasted hundreds of years in the United States.

The demons that I'm fighting are a lot different than those of my mother and grandmother, but that doesn't mean they are any less valid or any less scary, said Livingston, pointing out that while hosing protesters is less of a concern, there are politicians that oppose LGBTQ human rights and confiscate land from indigenous peoples via legislation.

Livingston pointed to hope and voice as solutions for injustice.

"As long as we are unable to define it, justice will always be out of reach," he said, asking attendees to start a conversation defining end goals.

Donovan Livingston recites original poetry honoring his mother, entitled "You look like your momma."