Forty years after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, Constance Iona Slaughter-Harvey will reflect on how the nation is fulfilling his hopes.

Slaughter-Harvey is the keynote speaker for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, entitled "Educating a Diverse Nation: Reflections and Celebrations."

She replaces actor and civil rights activist Ossie Davis, who canceled because of health problems.

Slaughter-Harvey will speak at 7 p.m. on Monday at Wharton Center's Great Hall. The speech is followed by a dinner and a march to Wharton Center.

Slaughter-Harvey was the first black woman to graduate from the University of Mississippi's law school. She said the treatment from her law school classmates was "about the same" from beginning of school to when she graduated.

"The initial rejection was obvious," Slaughter-Harvey said.

She is an attorney in Mississippi and a professor at Tougaloo College, where she graduated in 1967 with a degree in political science and economics.

Slaughter-Harvey said speaking across the nation gives her the "opportunity to try to challenge and encourage young minds to be honest with their minds."

Martin Luther King Jr., whom Slaughter-Harvey knew personally, was a pied piper, she said.

"Once you heard him, you knew who he was," she said. "He was low-key at times and sometimes he'd get riled up. His vision was quite unusual. He had concerns on how to change as a nation so our children could live better."

According to Slaughter-Harvey, the nation has taken a step back in terms of fulfilling King's dream.

"We're forgetting about the elderly, children are being moved to the back burner," she said. "All we have to do is look where we are as nation and the answer is obvious."