The Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Program was established in January of 1997 at Belmont University as a celebration of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Events are held each January as part of the observance of Dr. King’s birthday. Each of these events are open to the Belmont community and to the public. All are welcome and invited to attend.
January 21
MLK Week featured film—5:30 pm, 1890 Theatre
King in the Wilderness is an American documentary film about Martin Luther King, Jr. that premiered on April 2, 2018 on HBO, focusing on the final two years of his life leading up to his assassination on April 4, 1968.
January 22
MLK Week Chapel Service—10 am, JAAC Chapel
Dr. Corey D.B. Walker is the keynote speaker. Dr. Walker is a distinguished scholar, educator, and leader committed to a broad and inclusive vision of human flourishing. He is currently Dean of Wake Forest University School of Divinity, Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities, and Inaugural Director of the Program in African American Studies. In recognition of his scholarly excellence, Dean Walker was named the 2023-24 Phi Beta Kappa Frank M. Updike Memorial Scholar, becoming the first Wake Forest University professor selected as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar since the program’s inception in 1956.
Dean Walker has an extensive record of scholarly accomplishment and academic leadership. He served as vice president, dean, and professor of ‘religion and society’ at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology of Virginia Union University; founding dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, Business and Education and inaugural John W. and Anna Hodgin Hanes Professor of the Humanities at Winston-Salem State University; and chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Brown University, where he was also a tenured professor and faculty affiliate in the department of American Studies, Department of Religious Studies, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, and Committee on Science and Technology Studies.
A native of Norfolk, Virginia, Dean Walker holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Norfolk State University. After a successful career in the financial services industry, he earned a Master of Divinity degree from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology of Virginia Union University, a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from The College of William and Mary. He also holds a Master of Arts degree, ad eundem, from Brown University. An ordained American Baptist clergy person, he speaks regularly to congregations and at events nationwide and has appeared on various media platforms in the United States and abroad.
January 23
‘Seeing the Civil Rights Movement Through a Different Lens – the Jewish Perspective,’ 11 am, JAAC Chapel
A panel discussion titled, ‘Seeing the Civil Rights Movement Through a Different Lens – the Jewish Perspective’ will return to campus during MLK Week for a second year. Panelists will share first-hand experiences and reflections on what it was like, as members of a religiously marginalized community, to offer encouragement to others who were also feeling the sting of oppression and marginalization during the Civil Rights movement.
January 24
MLK Week Student Artist Exhibition, 10 am, The GIG
January 25
2025 MLK Joint Day of Service, 11 am, The Cal Turner Family Center for Student Engagement (on the campus of Meharry Medical College)
Volunteers from American Baptist College, Belmont, Fisk, Lipscomb, Meharry, Nashville State, Tennessee State University, Trevecca and Vanderbilt, as well as other area colleges and universities, will join in honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by volunteering together for the 13th annual MLK Joint Day of Service.
Volunteers must be 18+ years old and must be current students, faculty, or staff at Nashville area colleges and universities.
