Martin Luther King Jr. Week observances at K-State include dedication of bust at Ahearn field house, site of King’s last University speech

Thursday, January 4th, 2007

MANHATTAN — Martin Luther King Jr. will once again have a presence at Kansas State University, where he delivered a speech — his last on a college campus — nearly four decades ago.

K-State will dedicate a bust of King at noon Friday, Jan. 19, outside the southeast corner of Ahearn Field House as the culmination of the university’s Martin Luther King Jr. Observance Week, Jan. 14-19. Adding a special poignancy to the event is that the last university speech King gave before his assassination in April 1968 was at the field house. On Jan. 19, 1968, King presented “The Future of Integration” as part of the University Convocation Lecture Series.

The bronze sculpture of King, designed by K-State alumnus Richard Bergen, Salina, will sit atop a black African granite base on a pedestal with the names of various donors.

The day’s celebration also will include the honorary naming of 17th Street, which runs by Ahearn Field House, as Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Drive. The site of the bust eventually will be encompassed by the Coretta Scott King Garden of Engagement, to be designed by members of K-State’s National Organization of Minority Architecture Students.

Myra Gordon, K-State’s associate provost for diversity and dual career development, said the observance week continues to grow each year.

“We will be celebrating a set of historical events with the dedication of 17th Street as Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Drive and the installation of the bust,” Gordon said. “It’s just really amazing to be part of what’s going to occur during this week in Manhattan, Kansas.”

That K-State was the site of King’s last speech on a college campus is a bittersweet distinction, Gordon said.

“It is so terribly sad that we have lost this man and the way we lost him,” she said. “I remember the day of his assassination as if it were yesterday. But if some university has to be last university, then we have been blessed that it is K-State. We’re the university that heard and documented where Dr. King’s thinking was within four months of his passing.”

The theme for this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Observance Week at K-State is “Marching Toward A Just Society.” Activities include:

* Weeklong — College of Engineering Martin Luther King poster presentation, atrium complex in Rathbone and Fiedler halls.

* Saturday, Jan. 13 — Martin Luther King community celebration, Manhattan High School East Campus. Includes music, speakers, presentations and a candlelight walk to First United Methodist Church, 612 Poyntz Ave., 6:30 p.m.

* Monday, Jan. 15 — Prayer breakfast and buffet, 8 a.m., Clarion Hotel, 530 Richards Drive. Cost is $9 per person. Clyde Howard, Human Rights Commission and K-State director of affirmative action, will speak.

* Monday, Jan. 15 — Martin Luther King Jr. Day activities, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Manhattan Town Center. Day includes music, speakers, community service projects and presentations.

* Tuesday, Jan. 16 — “Diversity: Addressing the Needs of Our People,” 12:30-2 p.m., Flint Hills Room, K-State Student Union. Presented by Carl T. Butler, national Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences public relations chair and program manager for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 1890 program. Sponsored by Cargill Inc. and the K-State College of Agriculture diversity programs office.

* Tuesday, Jan. 16 — Interfaith dialogue, “King, Ghandi, Ikeda — A Legacy of Building on Peace,” noon, K and S ballrooms in the Union. Sponsored by the K-State Committee on Religion, K-State Martin Luther King Jr. Committee, K-State Women’s Center, Campaign for Nonviolence, K-State office of student life and Soka Gakkai International-USA.

* Tuesday, Jan. 16 — Commerce Bank Award presentations and reception, 3:30-5 p.m., Bluemont Room, Union.

* Tuesday, Jan. 16 — “Building Peace,” presented by Phyllis Goodson, 7 p.m., K and S ballrooms, Union.

* Jan. 16-18 — Showing of the film, “King, Ghandi and Ikeda — A Legacy of Building Peace,” noon, 4 and 7 p.m., K and S ballrooms, Union.

* Wednesday, Jan. 17 — Martin Luther King noontime lounge, noon to 1 p.m., designated locations at K-State colleges. Includes King readings and discussions.

* Wednesday, Jan. 17 — “Four Little Girls,” 7 p.m. at Forum Hall, Union. The Spike Lee film recounts the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. Sponsored by the Union Programming Council.

* Thursday, Jan. 18 — Martin Luther King Observance Week luncheon, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Union ballroom. Dr. Debbye Turner, a veterinarian and Miss America 1990, will speak. Cost is $10 per person; make reservations at 785-532-6276 by Friday, Jan. 12. Sponsored by Black Student Union, Student Government Association diversity programming committee and the College of Veterinary Medicine.

* Thursday, Jan. 18 — Martin Luther King candlelight vigil, featuring “The Untold Story of Emmet Louis Till,” 7:30 p.m., K-State Alumni Center ballroom. The documentary film unravels the brutal murder of a 14-year-old African-American boy. Director Keith Beauchamp will speak. Sponsored by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. and Student Government Association diversity programming committee.

* Friday, Jan. 19 — “A Street Fit for a King,” 10:30 a.m., Long’s Park, 17th and Yuma streets. Dedication of 17th Street as Martin Luther King Memorial Drive. Remarks by Bruce Snead, Manhattan mayor.

* Friday, Jan. 19 — Memorial march form Long’s Park to Ahearn Field House, 11 a.m. Progresses from 17th and Colorado streets to the east side of Ahearn. A hot chocolate social sponsored by leadership studies and programs will follow.

* Friday, Jan. 19 — Martin Luther King bust dedication and installation ceremony, noon, Ahearn Field House. Remarks by Dan Lykins, Kansas Board of Regents, as well as Gordon and others.

* Friday, Jan. 19 — “Naming Streets for Martin Luther King Jr.: A new Geography of Memory in America,” 3:30 p.m., Forum Hall, Union. Presented by Derek Alderman, professor of geography, East Carolina University. Sponsored by Gamma Theta Upsilon geography honor society and the K-State geography department.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 4th, 2007 and is filed under Diversity Events.