Hrabowski

Davidson College plans a series of public events on Monday, Jan. 19, to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, including kids’ activities, a fitness walk, a community convocation, educational seminars and an evening gospel extravaganza.

The community convocation, at 11:30 a.m. in Duke Family Performance Hall in the college union, will feature a speech by Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, since 1992. Also, Charlotte’ Pastor John P. Kee, an inductee in the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2007, will be the featured performer at the King Day Gospel Extravaganza at 7 p.m. in the Duke Family Performance Hall.

All events are free (see full schedule below). For more information, call 704-894-2225.

Here’s more about the day’s events from a Davidson College press release:

CONVOCATION SPEAKER

Hrabowski’s research and publications focus on minority participation and performance in science and mathematics. He was included among 20 individuals and groups selected as “America’s Best Leaders” in a 2008 U.S. News & World Report special report.

The magazine credits Hrabowski’s “ebullient cheerleading for education” at Maryland-Baltimore County as a driving force in that institution’s transformation from an unheralded commuter campus into one of the nation’s leading producers of technology graduates. He has received numerous awards, and co-authored two books, Beating the Odds and Overcoming the Odds (Oxford University Press). Both focus on parenting to direct African American youngsters toward academic achievement in science.

GOSPEL EXTRAVAGANZA

Born in Durham, Kee studied vocal performance at the U.N.C. School of the Arts and at the Yuba College Conservatory of Music. He settled in Charlotte and, after casting off a destructive lifestyle, was ordained into the ministry. He founded the New Life Fellowship Center in 1995 and remains the senior pastor. Its ministries include after-school tutoring, food for the hungry, Adopt-A-Family, and health and wellness.

In the mid 1980s, he formed the New Life Community Choir, which grew in popularity and has continued to travel throughout the area. In 1990, he founded the Victory in Praise (VIP) Mass Choir, with which he has recorded more than 20 CDs and received numerous music awards, including more than a dozen Stellar Awards, 20 GMWA Excellence Awards, a Soul Train Award, and two Billboard Music Awards. Kee was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2007.

FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Martin Luther King Day 2009 at Davidson College
Monday January 19, 2009
(For more information, call 704-894-2255)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Walk for Change
9:30 a.m.
Sponsored by the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.

The walk begins on the track at Richardson Field and ends on the front steps of Chambers Building with the reading of Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream Speech”

King Day for Kids
9:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m, Alvarez College Union Smith 900 Room

King Day for Kids focuses on literacy, social justice, and community involvement. Young people age kindergarten through 5th grade are invited to take part in a small group readings, storytelling, and bookmaking. Children receive literacy-based goody bags that include books at the end of the day. Please RSVP to Ashley Butler by Jan. 13 by calling 704-894-2872.

Community Convocation
11:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.
Duke Family Performance Hall
Speaker: Freeman Hrabrowski

Hrabowski was selected as one of “America’s Best Leaders” in a 2008 U.S. News & World Report special report. He has served as President of The University of Maryland, Baltimore County since 1992. His research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance. A child-leader in the Civil Rights movement, Hrabowski was prominently featured in Spike Lee’s 1997 documentary, Four Little Girls, on the racially motivated bombing in 1963 of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.

Community Reception
12:30 p.m. until 1:30 p.m.
Alvarez College Union, Brown Atrium
Entertainment Provided by The Mallard Creek
House of Prayer for All People Shout Band

MLK Seminar Series

1:30 p.m. until 2:45 p.m.

From King to Obama: Re-evaluating College Student Activism Across Identities
Alvarez College Union Room 312
Presenter: Darrell Scott, Davidson College ’10

After viewing images of multicultural and multiracial groups working together, a roundtable discussion will take place between student activists about their efforts to rally for change. Participants will examine past and recent college student activism and the questions it raises about potential cross-cultural and multiracial alliances in the Age of Obama.

Songs of the Movement
Alvarez College Union Room 302
Presenters: Nancy Fairley, Davidson College Professor of Anthropology, and Natasha Rivera’12

An interactive presentation about the significance that song played during the Civil Rights movement. Participants will have the opportunity to learn and sing selected songs from that era.

The Election of Barack Obama: Beneath and Beyond the “Historic Moment”
C. Shaw Smith 900 Room
Presenter: Susan Roberts, Davidson College Professor of Political Science

Roberts will discuss the election of Barack Obama and what it reveals about race, politics and the transformation of the proverbial “American Dream.”

3:00 p.m. until 4:45 p.m.

Documentary & Discussion
Tim Wise on White Privilege: Racism, White Denial, & The Cost of Inequality
C. Shaw Smith 900 Room
The session will feature a spellbinding lecture delivered at Mt. Holyoke College in 2007 by Tim Wise, a major anti-racist activist in America. Wise explores the related phenomena of institutional racism and white privilege, and how they continue to operate in the United States. He explores the problem of white denial, and the way in which the concept of whiteness was created in the 1600s largely as a mechanism for dividing working class persons of European descent from persons of color for the benefit of elites.
7:00 p.m.
MLK Community Celebration “Gospel Extravaganza”
Duke Family Performance Hall

Award-winning gospel recording artists Pastor John P. Kee & New Life of Charlotte will headline an evening of song and celebration. Other musical offerings will be presented by Brother in Christ of Gethsemane Baptist Church in Davidson, The Chosen Disciples of Asheboro, and Pastor Jeffrey Thomas of Lincolnton.