MLK Day of Service
For many students, faculty and staff, MLK Day is a day on, not a day off. More than 100 volunteers are planning to spend the day lending a hand at local nonprofit agencies. Their services will include playing games with senior citizens and children, painting, mulching a playground and picking up trash.
MLK Day of Service is organized by the Office of Civic Engagement, Leadership and Service and kicks off at 10:30 a.m. in Bigelow Hall, Miller Information Technology Center, Belknap Campus with check-in, T-shirt handouts and last-minute instructions. About 11:30 a.m. volunteers will go the parking lot behind MITC to board buses to their volunteer destinations. Most volunteers will work from noon to 3 p.m. before heading back to campus.
Anyone interested in volunteering can see a list of participating nonprofit organizations and register at Civic Engagement, Leadership and Service. Walk-ins will be accepted the day of the event if sites still have openings for volunteers.
Performance, talk and recognition of local NAACP
A play, a talk by an actress known for her roles in Mississippi Burning and In the Heat of the Night and recognition of the local chapter of the NAACP are all part of a free, public Martin Luther King Jr. Day program at 1 p.m. Jan. 17, Margaret Comstock Concert Hall in the School of Music, Belknap Campus.
UofL, Simmons College joint event
Simmons College of Kentucky and UofL will co-host an event from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at St. Stephen Church, 1008 S. 15th St., to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and discuss the importance of education for Louisville-area African Americans.
The Education is King program will include discussions by Kevin Cosby, St. Stephen senior pastor and Simmons College president, and UofL President James Ramsey. Other dignitaries expected to attend include Gov. Steve Beshear and Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer.
The program, which also is a Simmons College fundraiser, includes bestowing the first Charles H. Parrish Jr. Achievement Award on Humana Inc. co-founder David Jones Sr. and his wife, Betty. The award is named in honor of UofL’s first African American professor.
The event is free and public but tickets are required and can be picked up at Simmons College, 1018 S. Seventh St.
What did MLK really say?
Leading up to the MLK Day, Arts and Sciences Dean Blaine Hudson will talk about King and his beliefs about social issues at a Jan. 15 Saturday Academy session.
It may surprise people to hear what King was saying about those issues in the late 1960s, Hudson said.
The talk, More Radical than Remembered — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Economic Justice, Pan-Africanism, Religion and Family Planning, will be from 12:45 p.m. to 2 p.m. at DuValle Education Center cafeteria, 3610 Bohne Ave.
Saturday Academy is a weekend community forum that addresses a variety of issues. Hudson will give a seminar on African world and black history from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
