CSUEB events to honor Martin Luther King Jr., celebrate Black History Month

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Martin Luther King Jr.

  • January 16, 2013
  • By Barry Zepel

The Cal State East Bay campus community will host several events on campus and in the community in honor of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. the week of Jan. 21-25. Black History Month in February will be highlighted with an event sponsored by the Ethnic Studies and History departments and the Associated Students Inc. (ASI) Diversity Center.

While the university will be closed in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday holiday on Monday (Jan. 21), CSUEB students, faculty and staff will participate that day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Off-Campus Service Project: Planting Trees with Urban Releaf, at 27th and Market streets, in Oakland.

When the university reopens Tuesday, Jan. 22, the Diversity Center – located in the New University Union on the Hayward Campus, 25800 Carlos Bee Blvd. – will host two events:

  • The MLK Era Museum from noon to 3 p.m.; and
  • Stimulate Your Mind Program beginning at 4 p.m.

Other university programs include an MLK Festival, to be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the Agora Stage in the center of the Hayward Campus on Wednesday, Jan. 23, while a luncheon that will reflect on the contributions of King will be held from noon to 3 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 24 in room 311 of the Old University Union. Admission to the luncheon is free and open to the campus community.

On Friday, Jan. 25, volunteers will start assembling a “Making the Dream Quilt” from noon to 3 p.m. in the Diversity Center. The ASI invites student clubs, organizations and university departments to decorate and contribute cloth pieces to be included in the quilt, which will be presented in February as part of Black History Month in February.

Black History Month

“Heal the Community” is a special Black History Month program to be presented at 10 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 14, in the Diversity Center. Admission is free and the public is invited.

The program will be highlighted by a lecture given by Charlotte O’Neal, whose husband Pete O’Neal was a leader of the Kansas City Black Panther Party. The O’Neals, who have lived in exile in Tanzania since 1969, serve the people of that country through their United African Alliance Community Center.

Further information about MLK Week and Black History Month-related programs is available by contacting the ASI Diversity Center at (510) 885-7069 or asidiversitycenter@csueastbay.edu.