the
Time is
always right to
do what
is right
– Martin Luther King, Jr
Fourteenth Annual
Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast
285 Old Westport Rd., Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Lawrence Hall at Woodland Commons
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Timeline
1929 January 15. Michael Luther King, Jr., later renamed Martin, born to teacher Alberta
King and Baptist minister Michael Luther King. Boyhood in Sweet Auburn district.
1948 King graduates from Morehouse College in Atlanta, ga, with a BA
1951 Graduates with a BD from Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, pa
1953 June 18. King marries Coretta Scott in Marion, al They will have four children:
Yolanda Denise (b.1955), Martin Luther King III (b.1957), Dexter (b.1961),
Bernice Albertine (b.1963).
1954 September. King moves to Montgomery, al, to preach at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
1955 After coursework at New England colleges, King finishes PhD in systematic theology.
1956 January 26. King is arrested for driving 30 mph in a 25 mph zone. January 30. King’s
house is bombed.
1957 January. Black ministers form what became known as the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference. King is named first president one month later.
In this typical year, King travels 780,000 miles and makes 208 speeches.
1958 King’s first book published, Stride Toward Freedom (Harper), his recollections of
the Montgomery bus boycott. While King is promoting his book in a Harlem book
store, an African-American woman stabs him.
1959 King visits India. He had a lifelong admiration for Mohandas K. Gandhi,
and credited Gandhi’s passive resistance techniques for his civil rights successes.
1960 King leaves for Atlanta to pastor his father’s church, Ebenezer Baptist Church.
1962 King meets with President John F. Kennedy to urge support for civil rights.
1963 King leads protests in Birmingham for desegregated department store facilities and
Attendees at last year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast listen intently to
keynote speaker Patricia J. Williams from Columbia University School of Law.
fair hiring. In April, he is arrested after demonstrating in defiance of a court order,
King writes the eloquent “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” which becomes an enduring
symbol of the civil rights movement. On August 28, 250,000 civil rights supporters
attend the March on Washington, where, at the Lincoln Memorial, King delivers the
famous “I have a Dream” speech.
1964 King’s book Why We Can’t Wait published. He visits with West Berlin Mayor Willy
Brandt and Pope Paul VI. December 10. King wins Nobel Peace Prize.
1965 January 18. King registers to vote at the Hotel Albert in Selma, al and
is assaulted by James George Robinson of Birmingham. In February, King continues
to protest discrimination in voter registration, is arrested and jailed. Meets with
President Lyndon B. Johnson February 9 and other American leaders about voting
rights for African-Americans. March 16-21 King and 3,200 people march from Selma
to Montgomery.
1968 April 4. King is assassinated in Memphis, tn, by James Earl Ray.
1986 January 20 is the first national celebration of King’s birthday as a holiday.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15, 1929–April 4, 1968
M
artin Luther King, Jr. was born into a ministerial family. His grandfather began the family’s
long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in
Atlanta, GA serving from 1914 to 1931; his father served
from 1931 to the year 2000. From 1960 until his death,
Martin acted as his co-pastor. Martin attended segregated
public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of 15; he
received a B.A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Black
institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather graduated. In
1951 he graduated from Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he
was elected president of the senior class. In 1955 he completed a doctor of
philosophy at Boston University. It was in Boston that he met and married
Coretta Scott, with whom he had two sons and two daughters.
In 1954, Martin Luther King, Jr. accepted the pastorate of the Dexter Avenue
Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. In December of 1955, he led the first
great nonviolent demonstration in U. S. history. The Montgomery bus boycott
lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, the Supreme Court of the United States
declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses.
In 1957, King was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, an organization formed to provide leadership for the Civil Rights
Movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity, its
operational techniques from Gandhi. In the 11-year period between 1957 and
1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over 2,500 times. In these
years, he led a massive protest that caught the attention of the entire world,
providing what he called a coalition of conscience and inspiring his “Letter from
a Birmingham Jail,” a manifesto of the civil rights movement; he planned the
drives in Alabama; he directed the march on Washington, DC, where he
delivered his address, “I Have a Dream;” he was arrested upwards of 20 times
and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was
named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the
symbolic leader of Black America, but also a world figure.
At the age of 35, Martin Luther King, Jr. was the youngest man to have received
the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would
donate the $54,123 prize money to the furtherance of the Civil Rights Movement.
On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel
room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy
with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.
W
elcome to the fourteenth annual UMass Dartmouth
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast. This event
provides us the opportunity to gather as one community
to celebrate the legacy of one of America’s greatest social
justice pioneers. Dr. King believed, and challenged us all to
pursue the noble idea, that all persons, given the opportunity,
can overcome difficult circumstances to live productive,
meaningful lives. Dr. King demonstrated for the world, a
truly righteous life must include service to others who desire
opportunities to transform their own lives for the better.
Program
Welcome & Breakfast
Tayla L. Vincent, Class of 2016
Accounting and Management major
President, Student Government Association
Musical Selection
Lift Every Voice and Sing
(The Black National Anthem)
D’Sword Choir
Introduction of Mohammad Karim, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Tayla L. Vincent, Class of 2016
Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker Kevin Powell
Mohammad Karim
Keynote Speaker
Kevin Powell
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream
Read by Kharlita Chambers-Walker, Class of 2017
Crime and Justice major
President, Black Student Union
Member of the Diversity and Inclusion Council
Musical Selection
Man in the Mirror
Sung by Laodecia Fevrier, Class of 2018
Marketing major
Member of the United Latino Society
Closing Remarks
Deborah Majewski, Associate Vice Chancellor for
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
American National Anthem
D’Sword Choir
Kevin Powell
Keynote Speaker
Writer, Humanitarian and
President of BK Nation
K
evin Powell is one of the most acclaimed
political, cultural, literary and hip-hop voices
in America today. A prolific writer, Powell is the author of 12 books,
including his latest title, The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy’s Journey
into Manhood – a critically acclaimed memoir about his life, including being
raised in poverty by a single mother during his youth. His various articles
have appeared in CNN.com, Esquire, Ebony, and Vibe Magazine, where he
served as senior writer and interviewed such diverse public figures as Tupac
Shakur and General Colin Powell.
As an activist, Powell routinely appears in interviews on television, radio,
and in print and on the Internet discussing major issues of our time. He is the
president and co-founder of BK Nation, a national, progressive, multicultural
organization focused on such issues as education, civic engagement, leadership training, and job and small business creation. Powell’s recent speaking
engagements include visits to Microsoft headquarters, the U.S. Department
of Justice, the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the “March on Washington,”
and a one-week residency at Nigeria’s American University. On behalf
of the U.S. State Department, he toured Japan lecturing on the relevance of
Dr. King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech in the 21st century.
As a humanitarian, Powell’s work includes local, national and international
initiatives to end violence against females (including an appearance on The
“Oprah Winfrey Show” highlighting domestic violence). He has done extensive
philanthropic and relief work, ranging from Hurricane Katrina to earthquakes
in Haiti and Japan, to Superstorm Sandy in New York, to his annual holiday
party and clothing drive for the homeless since 9/11.
As an acknowledgement of Powell’s life of public service and his dedication to
literature and the arts, Cornell University recently acquired The Kevin Powell
Collection, documenting nearly 30 years of his work in print, photos, videos,
books, handwritten notes, speeches, and select memorabilia.