Carnegie Mellon University

Celebrating the Life & Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

2024 Schedule of Events

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Birthday Celebration


Tuesday, January 16, 2024
11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Various Locations Across Campus: Cohon University Center, Tepper Quad, Sustainability Studio in Hunt Library

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, the Office of the Vice Provost of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Center for Student Diversity & Inclusion, with support from Chartwells, invite the entire campus community to join us for a special birthday celebration. Stop by a campus location to grab a sweet treat and learn more about upcoming programs celebrating the life of Dr. King.

Registration is not required.

MLK Pittsburgh Community Event: Poetry Unplugged

Friday, January 19, 2024
8 PM
August Wilson African American Cultural Center

The Center has procured a limited number of tickets for students to the upcoming “Poetry Unplugged” event being hosted by the August Wilson African American Cultural Center.  This event will be honoring Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy during an evening of spoken word poetry, which highlights his core values such as: non-violence, unification, self-realization and justice. This year’s lineup will feature renowned poets such as: Kayden Hern, Love Ties, Jessica Lanay, Ed Mabrey, Aja Monet, and Sunni Patterson.

Register for a Center-sponsored ticket.

 

Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit

Saturday, February 24th, 2024
1:00 - 6:00 PM
Virtual

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Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit Logo

The Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit is a one-and-a-half-day conference dedicated to providing resources and spaces for community dialogues, sharing strategies and experiences of organizing for racial justice, healing from racial trauma, and providing connections to social support services for all attendees.

Register for the PRJS.

Service Saturdays

Saturday, January 20, 2024 and Saturday, January 27, 2024

Join PACE in a Service Saturday event! Service Saturdays provide small group volunteering opportunities with community-based organizations in Pittsburgh. Transportation is provided! Sign up to participate on TartanConnect. 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Keynote Lecture featuring Byron Pitts

Wednesday, January 24, 2024
5:00 p.m.
Rangos Ballroom, Cohon University Center

Byron Pitts

Byron Pitts is a multiple Emmy Award–winning journalist known for his thoughtful storytelling, on-the-ground reporting and in-depth interviews. A 30-year news veteran, Pitts has traveled the world to cover some of the biggest news stories of our time. He joined ABC News in 2013 as anchor and Chief National Correspondent covering national news stories and features for Good Morning America, World News with Diane Sawyer, Nightline, This Week, 20/20, and ABCNews.com, and was named ABC News Nightline co-anchor in 2014. He applies his unique experiences, perspectives and decidedly optimistic outlook to his life and his work.

Register for the lecture.

MLK Interfaith Breakfast

Friday, January 26, 2024
8:30 a.m. Breakfast, 9 a.m. Program
Rangos Ballroom, Cohon University Center

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Every year, members of the Carnegie Mellon community are invited to an informal breakfast with campus and community interfaith leaders, followed by fellowship and conversation about the life and legacy of Dr. King through the lens of faith, activism, and social justice.

Register for the Breakfast.


 

Understanding Antisemitism and its Impact on Jews

Tuesday, January 30, 2024
5 - 6:30 p.m.
Simmons Auditorium, Tepper

Wednesday, January 31, 2024
12 - 1:30 p.m.
Simmons Auditorium, Tepper

Join Noah Schoencommunity outreach associate at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, for one of two sessions to learn about the historical roots of antisemitism, the connection those roots have to its modern day manifestations, and the collective impact that generations of antisemitism has had on the Jewish community. 

Register for the program.

A Conversation on Black Livability in Pittsburgh with Rep. Linday Powell and former Mayor Bill Peduto

Thursday, February 1, 2024
12:30 - 2 PM
A301, Hamburg Hall

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Five years ago, the Pittsburgh Inequality Across Gender and Race report was released, affirming what many Black Pittsburgh residents knew to be true about their quality of life in the city. The report demonstrated that despite Pittsburgh being named one of the most livable cities in the country numerous times, certain indices of livability were extremely low for Black residents, specifically Black women. Pointedly, the report indicated that Pittsburgh was not the livable city for Black residents that it was for white residents. Today, many are left wondering whether anything has changed since the report was released in 2019. This event hopes to answer that question.  

COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War Book Release

Thursday, February 8, 2024

Combee book cover

Dr. Fields-Black is a specialist in the trans-national history of West African rice farmers, peasant farmers in pre-colonial Upper Guinea Coast and enslaved laborers on rice plantations in the South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry during the antebellum period.

Fields-Black’s new book, COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War (Oxford University Press, trade list, February 2024) offers the fullest account to date of Tubman’s Civil War service. This narrative history tells the untold story of the Combahee River Raid from the perspective of Tubman and the enslaved people she helped to free based on new sources not previously used by historians, as well as new interpretations of sources familiar to Tubman’s biographers. It is the story of Harriet Tubman’s Civil War service during which she worked as a cook and nurse in Beaufort, SC, and gathered intelligence among freed people and enslaved Blacks. It is the story of enslaved people who labored against their wills on seven rice plantations, ran for their lives, boarded the US gunboats, and sailed to freedom.

The Center is giving away 20 copies of Dr. Fields-Black's new book. Claim a copy of the book.

CAUSE Lecture with Dr. Jessica D. Klanderud

“Whose Streets? Our Streets!”: Social Networks and the Outrage and Disorder on the Streets of the Hill District
Friday, February 9, 2024
Danforth Room, Cohon University Center 
4:30 p.m. Reception, 5:00 p.m. Speaker presentation

The call, “Whose Streets? Our Streets!” brings to mind the street-based uprisings of the Black Lives Matter Movement. While this call for justice emerged from our present moment, this call echoes the earlier patterns of working class social outrage that developed on the streets of the Hill District. This talk will discuss the social networks of residents of the Hill District during the Modern Black Freedom Movement and the period leading up to the Pittsburgh “riot” following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. These social networks demonstrate how Black residents advocated for an alternative framework of law and custom that used the uprising on the streets to push for more militant social change in the Steel City while simultaneously creating an image of violent neighborhood street space that remains with us.

Antiracism in Action Workshop

Tuesday, February 13, 2024
5 - 6:30 p.m.
Rangos Ballroom, Cohon University Center

Join Dr. Wanda Heading-Grant, vice provost for diversity, equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, and Mark D’Angelo, diversity, equity and inclusion learning and development trainer and consultant, for this engaging and interactive workshop exploring what it means to be antiracist. Learn concepts, skills and strategies to help translate antiracist beliefs and sentiments into action-oriented antiracist allyship within your spheres of influence.


Register for the workshop.

Heinz College Block Party

Friday, February 16, 2024
3:30 - 6:30 PM
Hamburg Hall Rotunda

Join us for a Black History Month celebration with music, food and a good time!

Addressing Campus Islamophobia: Proactive Efforts to Address Hate and Bias, a Workshop with Amer F. Ahmed

Monday, February 19, 2024
12 - 1:30 p.m.
Peter, McKenna, Wright, Cohon University Center 

Join Amer F. Ahmed, vice provost for diversity, equity and inclusion and senior diversity officer at the University of Vermont and faculty in its Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration program, for the “Proactive Efforts to Address Hate and Bias” workshop.

The post-9/11 era in the U.S. has exposed a significant degree of prejudice and bigotry towards Muslim people and those perceived as Muslim. In 2012, a violent hate-motivated attack on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin highlighted the fact that Islamophobia is not just an issue that only impacts Muslims in America. Meanwhile, underscored by the shooting of three Palestinian-descendent college students near the campus of University of Vermont, there continues to be widespread discrimination impacting our campus communities. In light of this reality, questions remain regarding what administrators and faculty on campuses can do to proactively address these issues. 

This workshop will educate and update participants on the current realities related to Islamophobia and will challenge participants to develop practical steps that can be made on their respective campuses to address the issue.

Register for the workshop.

Islamophobia: Dispelling Myths to Break Down Barriers with Keynote Speaker Amer F. Ahmed

Wednesday, February 19, 2024
5 - 6:15 p.m.
Simmons Auditorium, Tepper 

Join Amer F. Ahmed, vice provost for diversity, equity and inclusion and senior diversity officer at the University of Vermont and Faculty in its Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration program, for “Islamophobia: Dispelling Myths to Break Down Barriers.”

The post-9/11 era in the U.S. has exposed a significant degree of prejudice and bigotry towards Muslim people. More recently, broad vilification of Muslims has served political agendas resulting in calls for bans, registries, and other civil liberty threats to the lives in Muslims in America. In addition, there have been dramatic increases in hate crimes against Muslims due to the toxic climate of hateful rhetoric in recent months. In 2012, a violent hate-motivated attack on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin highlighted the fact that Islamophobia is not just an issue that only impacts Muslims in America. Meanwhile, underscored by the shooting of three Palestinian-descendent college students in Vermont, there continues to be widespread racial profiling, hate crimes and bullying in the U.S. 

This program will benefit participants interested in learning more about Islam and Islamophobia, providing needed context to bridge divides.

Register for the program.

MLK Reading Series

Wednesday, February 28, 2024
12 - 1 p.m.
Location to be announced.

Join the Center for our first MLK Book Reading. In February we’ll be reading The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio and hosting a discussion over lunch.

A limited number of copies of each book will be made available for campus community members to read and commit to participate in a featured lunch dialogue.

To receive a copy of the book and register for the lunch discussion, please RSVP.

CAUSE Lecture with Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey

"The Mind of the State: Cold War anti-Black Counterinsurgency in the United States and Canada"
Friday, March 15, 2024
Danforth Conference Room, Cohon University Center
4:30 p.m. Reception, 5:00 p.m. Speaker Presentation:

Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey (Nii Laryea Osabu I, Atrékor Wé Oblantai Mantsè) is William Dawson Chair and assistant professor of U.S. and African Diaspora history at McGill University. Author of Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan-African North America (UNC Press, 2023), his current book projects examine gender and twentieth-century revolutionary Black leadership in the United States, and nineteenth-century African warfare along the Gulf of Guinea Coast. 

MLK Reading Series

Thursday, March 28, 2024
12 - 1 p.m.
Location to be announced.

Join the Center for our second MLK Book Reading. In March we’ll be reading The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride and hosting a discussion over lunch.

A limited number of copies of each book will be made available for campus community members to read and commit to participate in a featured lunch dialogue.

To receive a copy of the book and register for the lunch discussion, please RSVP.

MLK Reading Series

Tuesday, April 16, 2024
12 - 1 p.m.
Location to be announced.

Join the Center for our third MLK Book Reading. In April we’ll be reading Obie is Man Enough by Schuyler Bailar and hosting a discussion over lunch.

A limited number of copies of each book will be made available for campus community members to read and commit to participate in a featured lunch dialogue.

To receive a copy of the book and register for the lunch discussion, please RSVP.

2024 Selected Readings

February 2024 Selected Reading

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

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"Writer Karla Cornejo Villavicencio was on DACA when she decided to write about being undocumented for the first time using her own name. It was right after the election of 2016, the day she realized the story she’d tried to steer clear of was the only one she wanted to tell. So she wrote her immigration lawyer’s phone number on her hand in Sharpie and embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocumented immigrants—and to find the hidden key to her own. 
 
Looking beyond the flashpoints of the border or the activism of the DREAMers, Cornejo Villavicencio explores the lives of the undocumented—and the mysteries of her own life. She finds the singular, effervescent characters across the nation often reduced in the media to political pawns or nameless laborers. The stories she tells are not deferential or naively inspirational but show the love, magic, heartbreak, insanity, and vulgarity that infuse the day-to-day lives of her subjects."

March 2024 Selected Reading

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

the heaven and earth grocery store book cover

"In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.

    As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us."

April 2024 Selected Reading

Obie is Man Enough by Schuyler Bailar

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 "A coming-of-age story about transgender tween Obie, who didn't think being himself would cause such a splash. 

Obie knew his transition would have ripple effects. He has to leave his swim coach, his pool, and his best friends. But it’s time for Obie to find where he truly belongs.

As Obie dives into a new team, though, things are strange. Obie always felt at home in the water, but now he can’t get his old coach out of his head. Even worse are the bullies that wait in the locker room and on the pool deck. Luckily, Obie has family behind him. And maybe some new friends too, including Charlie, his first crush. Obie is ready to prove he can be one of the fastest boys in the water—to his coach, his critics, and his biggest competition: himself."