The annual UNC Week of Celebration kicks off next Sunday. It will include four events orchestrated by students and faculty that highlight the efforts of Martin Luther King Jr. in championing racial justice.
Patricia "Trish" Harris, senior director of education, operations and initiatives at the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, is the committee chairperson leading the collection of student organizations involved in the events.
“We actually have the longest-standing MLK celebration by a university in the nation. We're now in our forty-second year,” she said.
The Carolina Union Activities Board, Black Student Movement, Campus Y, Student Life and Leadership and other campus organizations have started planning and working collaboratively for the upcoming MLK events since last August. This year's theme is "Finding Our Way Forward."
Claude A. Clegg III, who works in both the Department of History and the Department of African, African American and Diaspora Studies, discussed the importance of serving the greater good within King's legacy.
"It's really important to recognize not only the contributions of a single person, but to contributions for that generation of people who are at risk quite a lot to push the country towards a greater realization of his democratic promise,” he said.
The week begins with the 38th annual MLK Jr. Memorial Banquet at the Friday Center on Sunday, Jan. 15 at 6:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased for $40 online or through a committee member. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Leah Cox, the vice provost for Equity & Inclusion and chief diversity officer for UNC.
Scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $2,000 will be presented to high schooler students in Orange County and all proceeds will go to raising scholarship funds for local students.
“The MLK Jr. University Community Planning Corporation became an official nonprofit in 1993 and has given close to 300 scholarships over the past several years to local high school students,” Harris said.
