SLU 200: April Symposium to Consider MLK's Legacy
03/02/2018
Saint Louis University will hold a public symposium, “Selma to St. Louis: Theology of Martin Luther King Jr., and the Pursuit of Justice 50 Years Later,” on the commemoration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy in celebration of the University's bicentennial from Tuesday, April 17 through Wednesday, April 18.
Symposium Events
Performance and Opening Keynote, 7:30 to 9 p.m., Sinquefield State Room, Room 409, DuBourg Hall. The evening will feature Jeffrey McCune, Ph.D., of Washington University in St. Louis, and J. Kameron Carter, Ph.D., of Duke Divinity School.
McCune will offer up excerpts of rarely orated selections from King's Saint Louis University speech addressing liberation and justice. The selections will be accompanied by music. Carter will offer a reflection on the same speech, attending to the question, “What’s at stake in our current context given King’s SLU speech?”
- “King as Public Intellectual,” noon to 1:30 p.m., Boileau Hall. This panel featuring Dwight N. Hopkins, Ph.D., of the University of Chicago Divinity School, and M. Shawn Copeland, Ph.D., of Boston College will concentrate on King as public intellectual and social activist. The panelists will take up questions of race, economic relations, and on-going civil rights campaigns in the modern world in light of King’s legacy, 50 years after his assassination. Lunch will be provided.
- “King and Activism,” 4 to 5:30 p.m., Center for Global Citizenship. The Open Dialogue session includes the Rev. Starsky Wilson, president and CEO of the Deaconess Foundation; Tef Poe, co-founder of Hands Up United; and Kayla Reed, organizer and civil rights activist. Lerone A. Martin, Ph.D., of Washington University, will moderate. The panel will discuss how contemporary movements for racial justice, especially within the region and at SLU, draw from, question and advance King's thought and practice.
- Evening Chapel Service, 7:30 to 9 p.m., St. Francis Xavier College Church. The symposium will conclude with worship and preaching. The Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, dean of the Episcopal Divinity School, Union Theological Seminary, and Dan White, S.J., pastor of St. Francis Xavier College Church will lead the service. The symposium’s concluding service will return to the place where King found his voice and perfected his craft: the pulpit. White will offer welcoming remarks to set the tone for the evening, followed by choir selections in the Black Church tradition. In a culminating sermon, Turman will offer a homily in the tradition of King’s theology of justice and love.