Julie Chavez Rodriguez: opening lecture
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, human rights activist and granddaughter of civil and labor rights activist Cesar Chavez, will present the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium opening lecture at 4 p.m. Jan. 15 in the Michigan League Vandenberg Room.
Chavez Rodriguez is programs director for the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation and heads the National Youth Leadership Initiative, which addresses academic and civic engagement among youth.
In California, Chavez Rodriguez also helped found the Cesar Chavez Day of Service and Learning, and a Web-based K-12 curriculum on the life and work of Cesar Chavez. The human rights activist and motivational speaker will present a personal perspective on her grandfather’s mission in establishing the United Farm Workers.
Julian Bond: keynote lecture
Julian Bond will deliver the keynote speech for the 23rd annual Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium at 10 a.m. Jan. 19 at Hill Auditorium.
Bond has served since 1998 as chairman of the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 2002 he received the National Freedom Award.
Elected in 1965 to the Georgia House of Representatives, Bond was prevented from taking his seat by members who objected because he opposed the Vietnam War. He was seated following a unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.
At the 1968 Democratic Convention, Bond was nominated for vice president. He had to decline because he was too young.
With more than 20 years service in the Georgia General Assembly, a university professor and writer, Bond also has narrated the Academy Award-winning “A Time For Justice” and the prize-winning series “Eyes On The Prize.”
Pearl Cleage: closing lecture
Writer Pearl Cleage is scheduled to deliver the MLK Jr. Symposium closing lecture at 1 p.m. Jan. 30 in the Michigan Union Pendleton Room.
Cleage draws on experiences as an activist for AIDS and women’s rights, and cites the rhythms of black life as her muse. Her first novel, “What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day,” was an Oprah Book Club selection in 1998 and appeared on the New York Times best-seller list for nine weeks.
Cleage grew up in Detroit and graduated from the public schools in 1966. She majored in playwriting and dramatic literature at Howard University in Washington, D.C., earned a bachelor’s degree in drama from Spelman College in Atlanta, and later joined the Spelman faculty as a writer and playwright in residence and as a creative director.
