University honors legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

“Shattering Ceilings: Celebrating Success in Pursuit of ‘The Dream'” is the theme of Washington University’s 22nd annual celebration honoring Martin Luther King Jr. at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 19, in Graham Chapel.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton will begin the program with a welcome and remarks. Camille A. Nelson, visiting professor of law, will present “Pursuing the Dream: Revisiting Dr. King’s Message in the Age of Obama.”

The Rosa L. Parks Award for Meritorious Service to the Community also will be presented.

The program will include musical performances from Afriky Lolo, a nationally acclaimed West African dance company based in St. Louis; the University City High School Jazz Band; and WUSTL student groups Black Anthology, Visions Gospel Choir, Sur Awaaz South Asian a capella group and The Greenleafs female a cappella group.

A reception in the Danforth University Center will follow the program. For more information, call 935-5965.

Other MLK events:

• The Human Race Machine, sponsored by the Assembly Series, is a photo booth that takes a person’s picture and then shows what that person would look like as an Asian, Hispanic, Indian, Middle Eastern, black or Caucasian person. The aim of the project is to generate a different way of talking about race, identity and other issues that divide Americans. The booth will be available through the evening of Friday, Jan. 16, in the north lobby of the Danforth University Center. For more information, call 935-4620.

• The School of Medicine will present its annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration lecture at 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 19, in the Eric P. Newman Education Center. William Julius Wilson, Ph.D., the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University, will present “Framing the Issue: Political Discourse and Race Relations in the Barack Obama Era.” A sociologist and leading scholar on urban poverty, Wilson is the director of the Joblessness and Urban Poverty Research Program at Harvard’s Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy. For more information, call 362-6854.

Additionally, the School of Law and the Black Law Students Association will host prominent criminal defense attorney and civil rights advocate Michael Pinard, J.D., as the 2009 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Speaker Jan. 22; and the Society of Black Student Social Workers at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work will host “Financial Freedom Seminar: Achieving Economic Independence Through Education” Saturday, Jan. 17.