“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 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.