Events set to honor MLK

Cornell College will hold a day of service and a candlelight vigil, screen films, and host a guest speaker to honor the legacy of Civil Rights movement leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Events begin Monday and run through Saturday.

The week will begin with a Day of Service activity to support the Hallmark Care Center in Mount Vernon. Donations of books, magazines, crossword puzzles, and word searches will be collected all day for the residents of the care center. A multimedia presentation, including images from the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom will be playing throughout the day in the Thomas Commons.

Also on Monday, Jan. 19, the college will hold its annual Candlelight Vigil in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. starting at 4:30 p.m. The vigil begins at the Thomas Commons information desk with a walking tour through campus led by the Rev. Richard Thomas, college historian and chaplain emeritus. The walk will include recollections of the Civil Rights Movement, past race relations, and King’s presence on campus. The vigil culminates in Allee Chapel where Spiritual Life leaders will lead a reflection on how the vision of King and other known and unknown Civil Rights Movement leaders inspire engagement in social justice, healing, and compassion today.

The Office of Intercultural Life is sponsoring two film screenings and reflections during the week. “Soundtrack for a Revolution,” a documentary about the music that drove the Civil Rights movement, will be screened Wednesday starting at 5:15 p.m. in the Ringer Dining Room in the Thomas Commons. “Betty and Coretta,” a film about the widows of King and Malcolm X, will be screened Thursday starting at 5:15 p.m. in Ringer.

Community activist, poet, and educator Valerie Hart-Craig will give a keynote speech at 3:30 p.m. on Friday in the Hall-Perrine multipurpose room. Hart-Craig is the president of the Greater Terre Haute, Indiana chapter of the NAACP, and she is the former Youth and College Advisor for the Indiana State University Chapter of the NAACP.

The Office of Intercultural Life, the Black Awareness Cultural Organization, and Lyrically Inclined are co-sponsoring “Sweetly Bitter: Joy, Pain, and Dreams through Artistic Expression” on Saturday at 4 p.m. on the Orange Carpet. The event will offer a chance for members of the Cornell community to express their joy, pain, hopes, fears, and dreams in a creative setting.