Martin Luther King Jr. Day programming comes to a climax Monday, with a candlelight vigil and a keynote address from Shanta Driver.
Driver's speech is themed "Integration and Equality in American Society: Realizing the Dream on the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education."
Driver is the national coordinator of United Equality and Affirmative Action. UEAA coordinated the student legal intervention in the University of Michigan Law School affirmative action case in 2003. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the University's right to consider race a factor in admissions in order to achieve a diverse student body. Driver recruited and served as a mentor to the 41 named student defendant-intervenors.
A graduate of Harvard University, Driver is also the National Director of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary. BAMN led the April 2003 50,000 person March on Washington to defend affirmative action, integration and equality.
Driver will deliver her address in Moore Theater in the Hopkins Center. According to the College's director of affirmative action and equal opportunity, Ozzie Harris, tickets sold out last week.
There will, however, be open seating 15 minutes beforehand. "In the past people who were really interested and anxious to go have been able to come," Harris said.
The theme for all of this year's events is "Rewriting History/Reclaiming Space: 50 Years After Brown v. Board of Education."
Among other events, a candlelight vigil leaves from Cutter-Shabazz Hall at 5 p.m. and finishes at the Top of the Hop.
"The vigil itself is something that has been very popular and very meaningful," Harris said.
From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in 105 Dartmouth Hall, there will be a continual multi media presentation of the speech that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered in that same room 42 years ago.
"What really matters here is that were trying to celebrate the life of King and get the Dartmouth community to reflect on how they'll contribute to a vision of equality and diversity," Harris said.
Events will continue through the next two weeks. The third annual MLK Social Justice Awards ceremony will be held on Friday, Jan.23. The awards are given to honor Dartmouth alumni who have championed civil rights, education, public health, environmental justice, social justice, and peace. Becca Heller '05 will be the emcee.
