Continuing a 17-year history of staging a major convocation honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Saint Michael's College is holding a series of events from January 12 to 19 to recognize Dr. King and, at the same time, to celebrate the historic election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. These events are free and open to the public.
The featured event will be a talk at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation by Dr. Manning Marable, Columbia University professor of public affairs, political science, history and African-American studies, on Martin Luther King Day, Monday, Jan. 19, at 4 p.m. in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel. The convocation is titled "A Living Dream: The Civil Rights Movement's impact on Americans' social justice beliefs and the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States." Saint Michael's President John J. Neuhauser will open the convocation, priests of the Society of St. Edmund will participate, and students will provide musical and literary contributions.
The week's events culminate January 20 with a community viewing of the Inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States on a 15-foot television screen in McCarthy Arts Center and another in the Hoehl Welcome Center, with broadcast starting at 9:30 a.m.
"It is inspiring and challenging to reflect through these events on the coming together of two extraordinary historic figures-Dr. Martin Luther King who paved the way, and President-elect Barak Obama, who gives us all hope that 'yes we can' treat people based on the 'content of their character,'" said Moise St. Louis, Saint Michael's director of multicultural student affairs, and event organizer.
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The week's events:
MONDAY, 1/12
"Brothers and Sisters in Selma: Vermont Catholic Activism in the Civil Rights Era"
7 p.m. in the Hoehl Welcome Center
A dramatic reading of original writings chronicling the work of Saint Michael's founding priests of the Society of Saint Edmund and the Sisters of Saint Joseph in Selma during the Civil Rights Era. Participants are Susan Ouellette, Saint Michael's associate professor of history; Elizabeth Scott, Saint Michael's archivist; and Saint Michael's students Michael Stefanowicz, Bridget Morse, and Erin Doyle.
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TUESDAY, 1/13
Film showing: "The Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change"
4:15 p.m. at the Saint Michael's Women's Center
This PBS television documentary showcases the brave and historic work of six Midwestern Catholic nuns who marched in Selma, Alabama, and ministered to Selma's black community, and much more. Discussion and refreshments to follow.
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THURSDAY, 1/15
Panel discussion on National & Global Impact of an Obama Presidency
6 p.m. in the Hoehl Welcome Center
Panelists, Saint Michael's faculty members, to be announced.
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FRIDAY, 1/16
Presentation on the African-American Composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Noon in Alliot Student Center Vermont Room (2nd floor)
Dr. William Tortolano, Saint Michael's emeritus professor of music and author of a book on Coleridge-Taylor, will give the presentation.
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MONDAY, 1/19
Lecture by Dr. Manning Marable on The Importance of Diversity in Higher Education
Noon the Alliot Student Center Vermont Room (2nd floor)
Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation
4 p.m. in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel
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MONDAY, 1/19 - Off-campus
Brothers and Sisters in Selma: Vermont Catholic Activism in the Civil Rights Era"
Repeat Performance
Noon at the Vermont Historical Society in Barre, Vt.
Participants are Susan Ouellette, associate professor of history; Archivist Elizabeth Scott, archivist; and Saint Michael's students Michael Stefanowicz, Bridget Morse, and Erin Doyle.
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TUESDAY, 1/20
Community Viewing of the Inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States
From 9:30 a.m. on, McCarthy Arts Center and Hoehl Welcome Center.
All are welcome.
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Biographical information on Dr. Manning Marable
Dr. Marable is one of the leading scholars of African-American Studies in America. After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1976, he joined Smith College, and two years later was named chair of political science at Tuskegee Institute; he later joined Fisk University. He established Colgate University's Africana and Latin American Studies Program in 1983 and then became chair of The Ohio State University's Black Studies Department till 1989 when he became professor of ethnic studies, history and political science at the University of Colorado until he joined Columbia University in 1993, where he is today professor of public affairs, political science, history and African-American studies.
Author of 21 books, Dr. Marable's major titles are: Race, Reform and Rebellion (2007), Living Black History (2005); W.E.B. Du Bois (2005); The Great Wells of Democracy: The Meaning of Race in American Life (2002); Black Leadership (1999); Beyond Black and White (1995); Black American Politics (1985), and How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America (1983). Several of his edited volumes have become standard texts in teaching African-American studies. He has won numerous awards and received many research grants. He is a leader in developing web-based educational resources on the African-American experience.
In 2002 Dr. Marable established the Center for Contemporary Black History at Columbia University, an advanced research and publications center that also produces Souls, a quarterly journal of African-American studies, and sponsors the Africana Criminal Justice Project. In 2007 he launched "The Critical Black Studies Series" of books on challenging topics such as the Katrina crisis and the global color line. Since 1976, Dr. Marable has written a political commentary series, "Along the Color Line," that appears in some 400 newspapers and journals worldwide. He speaks widely on behalf of prisoners' rights, labor, civil rights, faith-based institutions, and other social justice organizations. Dr. Marable lectures annually in Sing Sing Prison, Ossining, N.Y., in a master's program for prisoners.
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For further information, contact Moise St. Louis, Director of Multicultural Student Affairs, at 802.654.2663. Others who organized the series of events include Political Science Professor Jeff Ayres and the department; Dee Goodrich, Graduate Office; the MLK Jr. Society; Archivist Elizabeth Scott, history department Chair Susan Ouellette, and the Got Skills program.
Saint Michael's College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 368 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last eight years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings.