News > January 17, 2008

By Lillian King | Contributing writer

The university will be partaking in a myriad of events at the start of 2008 to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the change he inspired in this country. The university’s 10th annual MLK Invitational Basketball Tournament will kick it all off. The tournament will be held at 1 p.m. Jan. 19 in Reynolds Gymnasium and will consist of Intramural play with teams from across the state, an alumni game, a slam dunk contest and a three-point shoot out.

The following day, Jan. 20, the 3rd annual MLK GospelFest will be at 4 p.m. in Brendle Recital Hall. The concert will feature internationally renowned vocalist Martha Munizzi, who will be available to sign autographs following the show. The performance is free to anyone with a valid student ID or under the age of 12. For all other attendees, admission will be $5.

The university will also be collaborating with Winston-Salem State University to host the eighth annual joint MLK Keynote Program, which will feature LeVar Burton’s address, “On Common Ground.”

LeVar Burton is famous for his past roles as Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Kunta Kinte in the popular 70s mini-series Roots. Roots was a TV series that shed light on the lives of slaves growing up in America and the hardships that they faced. Today Burton is known as the host of Reading Rainbow, a PBS show encouraging youth to take an interest in literature. The Keynote Celebration will also feature a video address from author and poet Maya Angelou. The event is free and open to the general public. It will be held at 7 p.m. Jan. 21 in Wait Chapel, a location where Martin Luther King, Jr. himself addressed students years ago.

In King’s address, he encouraged students to take action against discrimination, and in February of 1962, just that happened.

Eleven black students from Winston-Salem State College (now WSSU), 10 white students from the university and one black community resident participated in a silent, non-violent sit-in at a department store in downtown Winston-Salem protesting against unjust and discriminatory city laws.

The students were arrested for trespassing, but with their arrest also came reform. City officials w

permit voluntary and non-violent integration of lunch counters in the city of Winston-Salem.

Since then, WSSU, historically black, and WFU, predominately white, have worked together to remember the accomplishments of those made in the past.

In 2001, the 40th anniversary of this historical sit-in was celebrated by the universities with the reunion of those individuals who had been arrested.

Barbee Myers Oakes, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, hopes that through events like these the university can promote and “strengthen relationships among all our students, thereby increasing their cultural competency and tearing down the walls that separate us, both within our own campus community and those that exist between the different college campuses.”

By coming out and supporting these events, past achievements are remembered, and present day situations can be addressed.

For additional information on any programmatic initiative, please contact the Office of Multicultural Affairs in Room 346 Benson Center or call Darlene Starnes at 758-5864.