In anticipation of the January 17 federal holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., UVA announced a community celebration featuring two weeks of events to honor the doctor and his legacy. As part of the celebration, UVA will offer presentations and lectures by a number of renowned civil rights activists and figures, both national and local. UVA History Professor Julian Bond will moderate a discussion about King’s visit to UVA in 1963, featuring three figures based in Charlottesville during King’s visit—NAACP board member Paul Gaston, local civil rights activist Eugene Williams and Wesley Harris, currently a faculty member at MIT and the second African-American to live on the UVA Lawn.
The celebration will also feature screenings of documentaries including Locked Out: The Fall of Massive Resistance and Freedom Riders, the latter to be introduced by Bond and UVA politics professor Larry Sabato. Guests will include political strategist Donna Brazile, Dr. Vivian Pinn (the only African-American and woman in her UVA medical school class) and poet/activist Amiri Baraka, who spoke at UVA in 2002. For a complete schedule of events, click here.
