This month, U-M’s 25th anniversary MLK Symposium is drawing former U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) official Shirley Sherrod, CBS newsman Byron Pitts and other prominent leaders to campus.
Sherrod, former USDA state director of rural development for Georgia, will deliver the MLK Symposium keynote address at 10 a.m. Jan. 17 at Hill Auditorium. Sherrod was selected because of her longstanding commitment to promoting civil rights, particularly among rural communities. Pitts, chief national correspondent for the “CBS Evening News” and a contributing correspondent to “60 Minutes,” will present the Stephen M. Ross School of Business MLK Day Lecture “MLK Stepped Out on Nothing For Us.” His talk is at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 17 in the Ross School’s Blau Auditorium.
The symposium theme is “We The People … Realizing the Dream?” It was selected by the MLK Symposium Planning Committee to honor the belief that all must be heard to fulfill the dream of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
U-M’s annual tribute to King, initiated by students, has become one of the most prominent observances nationally of the civil rights leader’s legacy. Other prominent speakers and events scheduled for the symposium include:
• Juana Bordas, founder of Mestiza Leadership International, which specializes in training and developing a work environment that encourages diversity and effective leadership. She will present the keynote speech “Diversity: Weaving Together the Sources of our Strength” for the Business and Finance MLK Day Convocation from 1-3 p.m. Jan. 17 at Rackham Auditorium. A reception will follow.
• Theary Seng and MLK’s Cambodian Legacy, 7 p.m. Jan. 13 at the U-M Museum of Art. Seng is founder and board president of the Cambodian Center for Justice & Reconciliation, and the founding director of CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education. Her talk is about justice, peace and reconciliation in Cambodia and MLK’s legacy in advancing these values across the globe.
• Robert Moses, civil rights pioneer and Algebra Project founder, will head the 5-6:30 p.m. Jan. 14 and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Jan. 15 events, “We the People: Creating a Grassroots Movement to Transform Public Education.” It will feature lectures, conversations and workshops that will explore movement building strategy for quality education, relationship building across stakeholder groups, and provide transforming educational experiences for students, faculty, staff, youth and community members. It will be presented in the Palmer Commons Great Lakes Room.
• Richard Moore, senior advisor and special projects coordinator for Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, will be the keynote speaker at the School of Natural Resources and Environment Dean’s Speaker Series/Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Planning Committee Lecture at 5 p.m. Jan. 24 at Rackham Amphitheatre.
• “The Freedom to Marry and Our Inheritance from Martin Luther King Jr.,” with Evan Wolfson, founder and executive director of Freedom to Marry, at 2 p.m. Jan. 17 in 250 Hutchins Hall. The talk is on the struggle for civil liberties in the context of gay marriage.
• “Healing the Wounds — The Health Disparities Legacy of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement,” at 11:45 a.m. Jan. 17 in Dow Auditorium, Towsley Center, with Sherman James, Susan B. King Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, Duke University.
• We the People: The Untold Stories, a program featuring three films that opens at 1 p.m. Jan. 17 at Rackham Amphitheatre. The films are “We Shall Not be Moved” from 1-2:30 p.m.; “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till” from 2:45 p.m.-3:55 p.m.; and “Standing on My Sisters’ Shoulders” from 4:10 p.m.-5:10 p.m.
• MLibrary MLK Day Presentation with award winning entertainer, lecturer, author and comedian Bertice Berry, at 2:30-4 p.m. in the Michigan Union Ballroom.
• Marjorie Lee Browne Colloquium, 4 p.m., 1360 East Hall, with Ivelisse Rubio, professor of computer science, University of Puerto Rico, with “The Situation Of Women And Minorities In Mathematics: A Civil Rights Issue.”
• Round Table Discussion on U-M’s Role in Detroit, via a video link with the U-M Detroit Center, 6 p.m. Jan. 18, Art & Architecture Building Auditorium Room 2104, featuring representatives from Detroit and the university community.
• “Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin,” a documentary film on the architect of the legendary 1963 March on Washington. Rustin also lived as an openly gay man during the homophobic 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. It is presented at 6 p.m. Jan. 19 in the Michigan League Henderson Room.
• “Immigration: A Catalyst for Change in American Cities” with Hussein Samatar, Dr. Ismael Ahmed, and Dr. Francisco Lara-Valencia on how immigration is shaping local economies, urban form and social dynamics. It is presented at 7 p.m. Jan. 19 in the Art and Architecture Building Room 2104.
• “The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water,” 1 p.m. Jan. 20, Michigan Theater, with speaker Maude Barlow, author, activist and co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, which works internationally for the right to water.
• U-M Women of SNCC: Women’s History and the Civil Rights Movement panel discussion at noon Jan. 21 in the Michigan Union Pendleton Room. The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, founded by African-American students at Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C., in 1960, grew to include students from all over the United States who staged freedom rides, sit-ins, voter registration drives and helped to secure voting rights for thousands of African-American citizens.
