1-7-97
Contacts:
Steve Sullivan, News Service, (515) 294-3720
ISU HONORS MARTIN LUTHER KING WITH SERIES OF EVENTS
AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University will remember Martin Luther King Jr. during a series of events. If he were alive, King would be 68 years old Jan. 15. He was assassinated in 1968 at the age of 39.
The national holiday honoring King is Monday, Jan. 20; university offices will be closed and there will be no classes that day.
The ISU/Ames observance kicks off Jan. 15 with a lecture by Iowa State's fourth George Washington Carver visiting scholar and concludes Jan. 30 with a talk by an organizer of the first civil rights march in 1961.
Carver scholar J. Herman Blake will present a talk titled, "Martin Luther King Jr.: Liberal Education and the Philosophy of Non- violence," at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 15, in the Memorial Union South Ballroom. Blake is the vice chancellor for undergraduate education and a professor of sociology, anthropology and education at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis. His research interests include isolated communities in the sea islands of Georgia and South Carolina, urban militants and minorities in higher education.
Activist and Baptist minister C.T. Vivian will speak at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30, in the Memorial Union Sun Room. His talk is titled, "Creating a Civil Rights Movement for a New Century." Vivian founded the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference, which organized sit-ins in 1960 and the first civil rights march a year later. He is board chairman of the Black Action Strategies and Information Center and the Center for Democratic Renewal.
Representatives of campus student organizations will participate in a forum, "Coalitions for Social Change: Parallels and Intersections," at noon Thursday, Jan. 23, in the Memorial Union Maintenance Shop. They will discuss strategies for change on campus. Assistant Dean of Students Terri Houston will moderate.
The King celebration also features a concert by the ISU Jazz Choir and the Big Eight Gospel Choir at noon Friday, Jan. 17, in the Memorial Union South Ballroom. A reception with birthday cake follows the concert. ISU carilloneur Tin-Shi Tam will present her annual "Let Freedom Ring" concert at 11:50 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21. A city-wide birthday party honoring King begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 22, in the Ames Senior High School Auditorium, at the corner of 20th Street and Ames High Drive.
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Diana Pounds, University Relations, dpounds@iastate.edu
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