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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated his life to improving the educational access and opportunity given to every person, and at the University of Utah, we continue to strive toward those values. Martin Luther King Jr. Week (MLK Week) has become a platform for engaging students, faculty, trainees, staff and community members in critical conversations around race and contemporary civil rights issues in America. This year, MLK Week takes place from Jan. 14-20, and all are welcome to get involved and participate.
In the spring of 1963, as King was preparing to help lead organized protests in Birmingham, he was simultaneously finishing his work on “The Strength to Love,” his first collection of published sermons to appear with Beacon Press. King’s notion of love wasn’t the amorous western ideal; King’s love required strength—even defiance in the pursuit of justice and equity. King understood his notion of love would seem contradictory to many readers—especially those seeing images of peaceful protesters in Alabama attacked by police dogs and battered by water cannons. But he insisted, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
In honor of MLK Week, the U will host a series of events exploring the reverend’s complex ideas on the meaning of love, and together we’ll examine the strength needed to choose it when faced with hatred and division.
MLK Week 2023 is planned in partnership with various organizations across the U and is sponsored by Domo, Inc. and L3Harris.
MLK Week events
MLK Day of Service | Saturday Service Project
9 a.m.-12 p.m. | Various locations
This is the kickoff event to the U's MLK Week. Volunteer in support of local community organizations to honor Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's dedication and commitment to justice, service and equity.
Click here for all the details and registration info.
Rally & March
2:30-4 p.m. | East High School to Kingsbury Hall
With Dr. King’s footsteps forging the pathway toward equity, we march to commemorate his legacy and the work of many activists during the civil rights movement. Join us for a rally and march (from East High to Kingsbury Hall) celebrating the legacy of MLK.
Signs for the march and shuttle ride back to East High School will be provided.
Click here for more information.
Art & Activism: Resistance Revival Chorus
9-10 a.m. | S.J. Quinney College of Law, Level 6
Join members of the Resistance Revival Chorus to talk about the role of arts in activism, both from a historical perspective and the ways in which current activists are employing art in their causes. The Chorus is made up of womxn and non-binary singers, representing a multitude of identities, professions, creative backgrounds and activist causes, who join together to breathe joy and song into the resistance. The RRC uses art and music to call for justice and equity for womxn across racial, ethnic, economic, sexual identity and religious lines. This will be a panel discussion with several members of the chorus—audience questions and participation are encouraged.
Click here for more information.
Choosing Love Over Hate | A Conversation with Reverend France A. Davis
11 a.m.-12 p.m. | J. Willard Marriott Library, Gould Auditorium
Whether it was growing up in segregated Georgia, working with leaders across the country during the civil rights movement, leading a congregation at Calvary Baptist Church, or teaching an ethnic studies class at the U, Reverend France A. Davis has lived the theme of “choosing love over hate.” Join us for an in-person Q&A discussion with Davis to learn about his experiences and discuss “choosing love” in navigating today’s challenges.
Click here for more information.
Resistance Revival Chorus
7 p.m. | Kingsbury Hall
Join us for an evening sure to breathe joy and hope as the Resistance Revival Chorus takes the stage in an uplifting performance. Born out of the 2017 Women’s March, the Resistance Revival Chorus is a collective of more than 60 women and non-binary singers whose mission puts women’s voices at the center. The Resistance Revival Chorus has been honored to perform with Kesha at the 2018 Grammys and on the "Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," along with many other artists.
Click here for more information.
Reframing the Conversation | Stronger than Hate
12-1 p.m. | Gardner Commons, Hinckley Caucus Room (2018)
Hatred is a social dilemma that has recently received increased attention. Violent attacks on African Americans, Asians and Jews—and the growing prevalence of hate online have generated a great deal of concern in the past few years. Although it is a nearly universal human experience that has existed throughout history, hatred is also a highly irrational and volatile emotion that’s been involved in catastrophic destruction—from the mass killing of the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994 to the Armenian genocide to the slaughter of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas. Of course, it also played an outsized role in the U.S. history of slavery and the racism of Jim Crow segregationists in the 20th century.
But the emotion doesn’t just threaten the object of hatred—it also poisons and corrupts the individual who carries the hate. As Dr. Lobsang Rapagay, a research psychologist at UCLA says “[if] left unchecked, [hate] intensifies from intolerance to a wish to annihilate the other. Hate strips us of our humanity.” Indeed, dozens of local and national health organizations, including the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association and the American Medical Association have condemned the activities of White supremacists and other hate groups in recent years, calling hate and racism “a public health crisis.”
Aligning with the MLK Week theme, “Choose Love Over Hate,” in the January installment of the Reframing the Conversation series, panelists will discuss the challenges of countering hate and examine how communities can move collectively away from it. They’ll also examine hatred in its various forms and discuss how the smaller seeds of hate can be recognized and stopped before they transform into larger and more dangerous problems.
Reframing the Conversation is a monthly hybrid series. Attendees can join in person at the Hinckley Caucus Room (GC 2018) or virtually on the Reframing the Conversation webpage. ASL interpretation will be provided, and auto-captions will be available. All requests for event access support and other questions or concerns may be directed to edi-events@utah.edu.
Click here for more information.
“Till” | Film Screening & Discussion
4-6:30 p.m. | The Post Theater
“Till” is a profoundly emotional and cinematic film about the true story of Mamie Till-Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, who was lynched in 1955 while visiting his cousins in Mississippi. In Mamie’s poignant journey of grief turned to action, we see the universal power of a mother’s ability to change the world.
Chinonye Chukwu directs from a screenplay co-written with Michael Reilly and Keith Beauchamp. Danielle Deadwyler, Jalyn Hall, Frankie Faison, Haley Bennett and Whoopi Goldberg star.
Click here for more information.
#LivingWhileBlack
8-9 a.m. | S.J. Quinney College of Law and Virtual
The hashtag #LivingWhileBlack first appeared as a social media hashtag to mobilize attention to incidents where white people called the police on Black people for engaging in non-criminal, everyday activities. The explosive combination of high-quality cell phone video and ubiquitous social media platforms revealed to the public several incidents where the police were called to report Black people in spaces that the callers believed they ought not be. In each of these cases, the Black men, women, and children were occupying spaces in which they had rights to be and undertaking activities they had a right to undertake. The ability of social media to make these incidents go viral has not revealed a new phenomenon. Rather, it has simply highlighted the modern incarnation of a much older one phenomenon: Attempts to use the basis of nuisance and trespass from property law as a way to exclude Black Americans from what the callers believe to be “white” spaces.
Jefferson-Jones examines both the historical and modern incarnations of this “Blackness as Nuisance” doctrine, and how this attempt to distort property law norms arises from a sense of racial entitlement and discomfort with racial integration. Professor Jefferson-Jones will discuss her research which highlighted language that either explicitly called for the exclusion of the victim based on his or her race or that employed racially coded language (“dog whistles”) to call for the police force to be used to remove Black people from shared spaces.
Finally, she will discuss why policymakers need to consider the intersections of property law and criminal law, and the historical origins of these types of incidents, in order to craft effective responses.
Click here for more information.
MLK Week Keynote | Melissa Wood Bartholomew
12-1 p.m. | Union Saltair Room and Virtual
This year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Week (MLK Week) planning committee is pleased to announce its keynote speaker for 2023: Melissa Wood Bartholomew. Bartholomew is the Associate Dean for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) where she also teaches. She is a scholar who is earnestly committed to eradicating racism and oppression and advancing healing and societal transformation through spiritually engaged, heart-centered multifaith and multidisciplinary strategies rooted in love.
This is a hybrid event. Attendees will be able to attend in person at the Union Saltair Room or join via a livestream on this webpage. ASL interpretation will be provided, and auto-captions will be available. All requests for event access support and other questions or concerns may be directed to edi-events@utah.edu.
Click here for more information.
Expressing Love Through Food
12-1:30 p.m. | Sorensen Molecular Biotechnology Building, Room 3250
The roots of the modern food justice movement are in the civil rights era: it was in 1969 that the Black Panther Party started a free breakfast program for school children in Oakland, California. Today, grassroots food justice movements take shape around regenerative agriculture, supporting local farmers and businesses, increasing food accessibility, and above all using mutual aid networks to reduce hunger.
Friday’s lunch and learn, “Expressing Love Through Food,” will feature speakers who are striving for food justice in the valley and a lunch catered by Urban Pioneer Café. Join us to learn about our local food justice movements
Registration is required.
Click here for more information.
MLK Jubilee
6-8 p.m. | Black Cultural Center
End Martin Luther King, Jr. Week on a high note and celebrate the legacy of students who fought for equality during the Civil Rights Movement. While working on their studies, these students worked through organizations such as The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and founded Black student unions and identity-based student organizations.
The MLK Jubilee will have food, music, games and opportunities to make connections in our community.
Click here for more information.