Celebrating Dr. King

Over the last six months, cases of alleged police brutality in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City have gripped the nation. Peaceful demonstrations—as well as racial unrest from coast to coast—bring about comparisons to the nation’s civil rights movement of the 1960s, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., (GRS’55, Hon.’59). On Monday, the nation will celebrate King’s birthday, and BU will use the federal holiday as an occasion to reflect on King’s life and consider the current tumultuous climate and how we, as a country, can move forward. Campus events will include a special service at Marsh Chapel, a musical performance, discussions on King’s legacy, and a seminar at the Howard Gotlieb Center to take place later this month.

During this year’s celebration, Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore (SED’87) challenges everyone to reflect on current events. “This year we would be remiss not to think about a few things, and this means really thinking about the enduring questions that are out there, the ones that always find their way to the contemporary, where we are right now,” he says. “We will give due consideration to the legacy of Dr. King and the movements and the people of his time, and the current social conditions around race right now.”

King, who was assassinated in 1968, would have turned 86 on Thursday, January 15. The University’s annual observance will begin Sunday with a service at Marsh Chapel, which will be conducted by Marsh Chapel Dean Robert Allan Hill. Peter J. Paris, the visiting Walter G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics, will deliver the sermon. The Marsh Chapel Choir, led by music director Scott Allen Jarrett (CFA’99,’08), will perform several African American hymns and spirituals during the service.

The Marsh Chapel service is at 11 a.m., Sunday, January 18, at Marsh Chapel, 735 Commonwealth Ave. The service is free and open to the public; it will also be broadcast live on WBUR and can be downloaded as a podcast from Marsh Chapel’s website.

On Monday, the official federal holiday commemorating King’s birth, the Community Service Center will travel to Roxbury’s Madison Park Technical Vocational High School for a community service project for children transitioning out of homelessness and into their new homes. Volunteers will make bedtime “dream kits” —a dream catcher and dream journal—intended to help inspire goal setting and achievement. They will also build lap desks for students to use when there is not a comfortable space for them to do their homework. These products will be donated along with volunteer-built toddler beds and handmade quilts.

The Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday, January 19, at the Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, 75 Malcolm X Blvd., Boston. To sign up, click here (note: must be logged into a BU GMail account to do so).

Later in the morning, the Office of the Dean of Students and the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground will hold their annual commemoration of Dr. King. Titled “The Other America: On the Occasion of the National Celebration of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” the event will feature prize-winning poet Nikki Giovanni and former Bay State Banner publisher Mel Miller, who will deliver a tribute to Edward W. Brooke (LAW’48, Hon.’68), the first popularly elected African American US senator, who died January 3 at the age of 95. The name of the event comes from what Martin Luther King, Jr., called “the twin problem of racism, which is poverty,” says Elmore.

Musical group and BU alums Sons of Serendip, who recently placed fourth on the TV show America’s Got Talent, will also perform at the event, as will student and alumni speakers. The event is free and open to the public.

The Other America: On the Occasion of the National Celebration of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is at 2 p.m. on Monday, January 20, in the George Sherman Union Metcalf Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public.

Later that evening, King will be the subject of a special Rhett Talk featuring BU faculty. Entitled “The Problem of Poverty,” the event will focus on a critical theme addressed by King in his 1965 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. The evening’s three speakers will give quick, provocative TedX-style talks that focus on different aspects of poverty raised by King’s address. Diana Swancutt, a School of Theology visiting associate professor, will deliver a talk entitled “Owning It: The Complicity of Christianity in U.S. Poverty”; Keith Magee, a STH visiting professor at the Center for Practical Theology, will deliver a talk titled “Strength to Love: Global Justice for the Poor”; and Deborah Belle, a College of Arts & Sciences professor of psychology, will address “Some Consequences of Poverty in our Wealthy Nation.”

Belle will review some of the social science evidence showing how damaging the nation’s “exceptional levels of child poverty and economic inequality” are to one’s physical, emotional, and social well-being. “I will discuss the reasons behind these dire associations,” she says. “Martin Luther King, Jr., raised our consciousness about poverty and inequality, but we still have a long way to go to overcome these problems.”

The special Rhett Talks is at 7 p.m. on Monday, January 19, in the George Sherman Union Large Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public.

On Thursday, January 22, the Medical Campus will commemorate King’s legacy with a celebration, starting with a talk by Kermit A. Crawford, a School of Medicine associate professor of psychiatry and a forensic scientist, titled “The Enduring Legacy and Lessons of MLK: From Birmingham to Ferguson.” A brief classical music performance by vocalist Joseph Payne, a BMC patient, and concert pianist Moisès Fernández Via, project curator and researcher for the Medical Campus and College of Fine Arts collaborative Arts Outreach Initiative, will follow.

The Medical Campus Martin Luther King, Jr., Birthday Celebration is at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 22, in the School of Medicine Keefer Auditorium, 72 E. Concord St. The event is free and open to the public and all faculty, students, and staff.

Finally, on Wednesday, January 28, the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center (HGARC) will host a Student Discovery Seminar, entitled “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & Dr. Howard Thurman: Boycotts, Mystics & the Civil Rights Struggle.” Led by Walter Fluker (GRS’88), the Martin Luther King, Jr., Professor of Ethical Leadership at the School of Theology, and Ryan Hendrickson, HGARC assistant director for manuscripts, the seminar will examine original letters, speeches, manuscripts, and journals from King and Thurman (Hon.’67) on the subjects of theology, civil rights, nonviolence, education, mysticism, and India.

“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & Dr. Howard Thurman: Boycotts, Mystics & the Civil Rights Struggle” is at 6 p.m. on Wednesday January 28, in the HGARC Reading Room, Mugar Memorial Library, 771 Commonwealth Ave., Fifth Floor. The event is free and open to students with a BU ID.