When he was only 12 years old, Barry Scott wanted to emulate the dream of a fallen activist.

Scott, a portrayer of Martin Luther King Jr., said he knew he wanted to study the late civil rights leader as soon as he first heard him speak as a young boy.

Shortly after King was assassinated in 1968, Scott said his father brought home a tape of King speaking. Scott said he watched the film over and over before he went to bed that night.

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“I went to bed feeling good about myself,” he said. “That was hard to do when you were growing up colored.”

Scott performed a 1957 speech King gave in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday night as a part of the university’s weeklong celebration of King’s life and works. The Student Center Auditorium was silent throughout Scott’s speech except for the sound of a restless child and occasional laughter from the crowd.

Scott described himself as obsessed with King because of the feeling he had from the time he first heard the legend speak, and he wanted to continue to share the powerful words after his death.

“I say the words today, 40 years later, because they make me feel good,” Scott said. “That’s why I am here today.”

Scott is also the founder of the American Negro Playwright Theatre, a Nashville-based company with the stated mission to “develop more responsible and informed citizens in the community.”