The celebration’s theme this year focused on King’s 1957 speech “Give Us the Ballot—We Will Transform the South,” which he delivered to 25,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., during the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom demonstration. The event was organized to urge the federal government to fulfill the three-year-old Brown v. Board of … Continue reading Voting Rights Are Equal Rights
Drawing parallels between the 1967 speech and the current realities of a divided America, the event’s cochair, LaJuan Pringle, cited in his introduction the tumultuousness of the previous year, including a global pandemic, increasing awareness of police brutality, and an economic crisis. Pringle, who is manager of Charlotte Mecklenburg (N.C.) Library’s West Boulevard branch, also … Continue reading The Other America
In the decades that followed, the group’s name changed periodically to reflect the evolving times, finally becoming known in 2019 as the Rainbow Round Table. But its mission—to serve the information needs of LGBTQIA+ library professionals as well as the information and access needs of the LGBTQIA+ community at large—has never faltered. LGBTQIA+ youth have … Continue reading The Rainbow’s Arc
Virginia Moore, past chair of ALA’s Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Task Force, talked about the origins of the annual Midwinter celebration. “Libraries lead the way,” she said. “Keep the dream alive.” Satia Orange, former director of ALA’s Office for Literacy and Outreach Services, reminded the more than 200 attendees … Continue reading 20 Years of the MLK Sunrise Celebration
An estimated 230 people attended the 6:30 a.m. celebration, joined by more than two dozen library leaders who read passages, made short speeches, and recited poems that recognized King’s legacy and advocated for peace and social justice. The event was sponsored by the American Library Association’s Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services, the Social Responsibilities … Continue reading “Every Person Matters”
McKibben minced no words. “We are currently losing the battle for a livable planet,” he said. “We need to use every model we can think of to get back in this fight. We need to understand the vast scale and pace of the problem of climate change in order to get the right scale and … Continue reading Fighting the Battle for a Livable Planet
This column is one in a multipart American Libraries series that explores the library profession’s relationship to sustainability. Author and entrepreneur John Elkington, often credited for introducing the concept of TBL, wrote in Cannibals with Forks: Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business (1999) that organizations must be economically prosperous, promote environmental quality, and be champions of … Continue reading Triple Bottom Line Sustainability
