Members of the campus and area communities are invited to help celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. during numerous events scheduled Jan. 17 – 28.
The celebration begins Monday at noon in Memorial Chapel, with a student-led tribute titled “Speaking Out Through the Arts.” 51 President Jeffrey Herbst will help kick off the event, held on King’s actual birth date.
Several workshops also will be held that Monday, including a session led by political science professor Peter Banner-Haley called A Time of Reconsideration: MLK, Obama, and America’s Future.
Haley’s latest book, From Du Bois to Obama: African American Intellectuals in the Public Forum, includes a section that discusses what Obama’s presidency might mean for the future of race relations and black intellectualism in America.
A panel discussion, moderated by Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson, will focus on the topic “We May Have All Come On Different Ships, But We’re In the Same Boat Now.” Seven faculty and staff members will offer their perspectives on diversity at the brown bag lunch at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18, in the Center for Women’s Studies.
“We hope everyone will take advantage of these compelling activities and take some time to share and reflect on what King’s legacy means to us today,” said Lyle Roelofs, provost and dean of the faculty.
The keynote address will be 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 20, in the Chapel. The speaker is Robert P. Moses, founder and president of the Algebra Project. Moses’s nonprofit organization uses mathematics as an organizing tool to ensure a quality public school education for every child.
Moses is well known for his leadership of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the pivotal years of the civil rights movement, and is a winner of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship.
On Friday, Jan. 28, the Center for Outreach, Volunteerism, and Education will coordinate an afternoon of service activities, honoring the legacy of King in a way that he most strongly advocated.
For a complete list of events, all of which are free and open to the public, please click (PDF).