"What Has Happened to the Dream?"

Holy Cross to Commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Monday, Jan. 21
4:30 p.m. - Campus-wide Candlelight Vigil March through campus, ending at the Rehm Library of Smith Hall

5 p.m. - Ecumenical Worship Service for King's birthday in the Rehm Library of Smith Hall; sponsored by the Chaplains' Office

7:30 p.m. - "The Moral Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: A Student Led Teach-in and Debate" will be held in the Rehm Library of Smith Hall; sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture

Organized by seven students who prepared for the event over their Christmas break, the discussion will be led solely by students and moderated by Professor Bertram Ashe, director of African-American Studies at Holy Cross.

The event will begin with two five-minute presentations to set the context for the discussion to follow. The students will briefly lecture on the social context faced by African Americans in the 1950s South and on King's role in the civil rights movement.

This portion will be followed by analysis and discussion of the moral legacy of King. Students will present and debate over a variety of aspects of King's legacy, including leadership in the Black community; the role of women in the civil rights movement; the meaning and legacy of non-violence; how liberals and conservatives have tried to claim the mantle of King's legacy for their own causes; and the commercialization of King's image and writings.

Tuesday, Jan. 22
12 p.m. - Diversity 101 Luncheon Series: "King, 2002: A Multi-disciplinary View" with panelists Prof. Bert Ashe, English; Prof. Carol Conaway, political science; Frank Vellaccio, provost; Rev. Dennis J. Yesalonia, S.J., general counsel and moderator; and Jacqueline D. Peterson, vice president for student affairs and dean of students, in Room 401 of the Hogan Campus Center

Wednesday, Jan. 23
8 p.m. - Viewing of "Eyes on the Prize - America's Civil Rights, Years 1954 to 1965" in Crossroads; sponsored by the Black Student Union

Thursday, Jan. 24
4 p.m. - "What Has Happened to the Dream," lecture by Dr. Manning Marable, professor of history and political science and founding director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, in the Ballroom of the Hogan Campus Center; reception to follow; co-sponsored by the Black Student Union

Friday, Jan. 25
12 p.m. - "How to Build and Maintain Relationships with ALANA (African-American, Latino, Asian-American, and Native-American) Students," a workshop for faculty, staff and administrators in Rooms 402-3 of the Hogan Campus Center; sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Education. Seating is limited; call 508/793-2411 to register

Biography:
Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister in Alabama when he became involved in the civil rights movement. In 1955, in response to the arrest of Mrs. Rosa Parks, King organized an African-American boycott of the bus company that ended when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the bus segregation laws of Alabama illegal.

At this time, King became the undisputed leader of the civil rights movement and led a march of 37,000 people in Washington, D.C., in 1958.

The following year, King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, went to India, the homeland of Mahatma Gandhi, where King studied Satyagraha, Gandhi's principle of nonviolent persuasion. This became King's main instrument of social protest.

This method of peaceful protest was made manifest on August 28, 1963, when 200,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation; it was here that King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

In 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize; he divided the prize money among various civil rights organizations. That same year, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. After a controversial march for voting reforms, a voting rights bill was passed allowing African-Americans to vote in 1965.

Toward the end of King's life, he had become associated with the antiwar movement as well as the civil rights movement and the rights of the underprivileged. On April 4, 1968, while supporting the sanitation workers' strike in Memphis, Tenn., King was shot and killed.