In 2017, Calvin College administrators, faculty, staff, and students join with members of the Grand Rapids community to pray before the MLK Day Silent March around campus.
On Monday, January 15, 2018, Calvin College is hosting a handful of events commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day on campus that are free and open to the public. A chapel service, silent march, research/training, and a lecture by a leading expert on race in education are among the lineup.
Full schedule available here.
Beverly Daniel Tatum's January Series lecture at 12:30 p.m. EST highlights the day's events. Tatum is a psychologist, administrator, and educator who has conducted research and written books on the topic of race, focusing specifically on race in education, racial identity development in teenagers, and assimilation of black families and youth in white neighborhoods. Her important book Why Do All the Black Kids Sit Together in the Cafeteria was re-released in its 20th anniversary year this past fall.
Tatum served from 2002 to 2015 as president of Spelman College, the oldest historically black women's college in the United States.
In addition to the lineup of events on Monday, Calvin College's pre-college programs office is welcoming 21 high school students from the greater Grand Rapids area to campus from Friday, January 12 through Sunday, January 14 for MLK Young Leaders Weekend. The program is geared toward equipping young leaders to lead effectively in every aspect of their lives. Students live on campus, participate in workshops focusing on leadership development and finding ones' purpose, travel to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, visit a local church, a community service-learning project, and attend Tatum's lecture on MLK Day.
