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Authors commemorate anniversary of Martin Luther King’s campus visit

Juan Williams

Two prominent civil rights movement authors will help Sacramento State observe the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s visit to the campus, Tuesday, Oct. 16.

Juan Williams and Clayborne Carson will participate in a panel discussion noon-3:45 p.m. and will speak at an observance ceremony 6:30-9 p.m. Both events are in the University Union Ballroom. Williams is a senior correspondent on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and author of the nonfiction bestseller Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965. Carson is a history professor at Stanford University and is the director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. He’s also the author of In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s.

Clayborne Carson

Other activities include a welcome and reflection by faculty and administrators at 10 a.m. and performances by the Department of Theatre and Dance, the Sacramento Metropolitan Community Choir and the Sacramento Black Art of Dance troupe at the observance ceremony. All events are in the University Union Ballroom. Events are free and open to the community.

King visited the campus Oct. 16, 1967 after receiving an invitation from the University’s Cultural Programs Committee. He spoke to a crowd estimated at 7,000 at what was then the soccer field and is now the Alex Spanos Sports Complex.

President Alexander Gonzalez and the Faculty Senate called for convocation for the day’s events, meaning classes may be cancelled at the discretion of the instructor for students to attend. Students whose classes are not cancelled and would like to attend should check with their instructor beforehand.