An estimated 200 people attended the 6:30 a.m. celebration on January 21 at ALA’s 2024 LibLearnX conference in Baltimore. This year would have marked King’s 95th birthday. More than 20 library leaders from across the profession took the stage to read passages from King’s speech at the 1967 National Conference for New Politics in Chicago, an … Continue reading ‘We Need the Doers’
An estimated 200 people attended the 6:30 a.m. celebration Sunday, January 29, at ALA’s 2023 LibLearnX conference. Twenty library leaders from across the profession took the stage to read passages from The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., focusing on the civil rights leader’s time in Chicago in 1966, when he shifted the movement’s efforts … Continue reading ‘A Lens of Care’
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
An estimated 300 people attended the 6:30 a.m. celebration Monday, January 27, at the ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits in Philadelphia. In keeping with annual tradition, more than a dozen library leaders read selected passages from King’s work to recognize the connection between the library world and King’s advancement of peace and social justice. Keynote … Continue reading Our Collective Will
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”
The keynote speaker was Daina Ramey Berry, associate professor of history and African and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin and author of The Price for Their Pound of Flesh (2017), a history of the economic value of slaves from birth to death. “Slavery does not stop people from fighting for … Continue reading “Freedom Ain’t Never Been Free!”
The Black Caucus of the American Library Association and the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table held the 15th annual holiday observance and sunrise celebration for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday morning at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Chicago. Dr. Cornel West, professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary in New … Continue reading ALA Celebrates Martin Luther King Jr.
