Purdue University Calumet will celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. with a Convocation and peace exhibit on campus later this month plus a heritage tour to Memphis in February.

The celebration theme is Yesterday’s Dream, Today’s Reality II: Transforming the Human Spirit.

Convocation, Jan. 27

The university’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation—Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 11 a.m. in Alumni Hall of the Student Union & Library—will focus on how America can transform the spirit of the Civil Rights movement from behavior dictated by laws to a human spirit influenced by values and moral character, according to Purdue Calumet Assistant Vice Chancellor of Educational Opportunity Programs Roy Hamilton.

The event will feature a presentation of King’s address, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence,” delivered April 4, 1967, exactly one year prior to his assassination.

“The centerpiece of the Convocation will be voices of today’s reality reflecting on the need to break the silence,” Hamilton said.

Purdue Calumet students also will deliver King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Exhibit Jan. 25-29

Sandwiched around the Convocation, the Gakkai International Peace Exhibit will be on display Jan. 25-29 in the concourse of the Student Union & Library. Soka Gakkai International developed the exhibit in 2007 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Soka Gakkai Second President Josei Toda’s declaration calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons in 1957.

Launched at a civil society forum in New York to galvanize public opinion to halt nuclear weaponry and create a culture of peace aimed specifically at mobilizing youth, the exhibit has been displayed across the world.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the exhibit is scheduled at 11 a.m., Tuesday, Jan. 26.

Heritage Tour of Memphis, Feb. 18-21

In continued celebration of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and recognition of Black History Month, an African American Heritage Tour of Memphis, Tenn. is scheduled Feb. 18-21.

The journey will feature visits to historic sites and museums that recount African/Afro-American social history relative to the slave labor system, Civil Rights Movement and Afro-American culture, especially with respect to religion and music. Tour stops include:

• National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel, where King was assassinated;

• Memphis Slave Haven / Burkle Estate Museum, a former stop on the underground railroad; and

• Stax Museum of American Soul Music, which pays tribute to all artists who recorded there.

Community members are invited, as are students who can enroll to earn undergraduate academic credit within Purdue Calumet’s Ethnic Studies program.

Tour participants will travel on a luxury bus equipped with monitors and DVD/VCR. The $575 per person fee also includes six meals, three-night hotel accommodation based on double room occupancy, and admission to museums and historic sites.

Purdue Calumet’s Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, the Multi-Cultural Campus Council and the Ethnic Studies program is sponsoring the tour. Other information is available by contacting Assistant Vice Chancellor Hamilton at 219/989-2779 or 800/HI-PURDUE, ext. 2779 or e-mailing him at Hamilton@calumet.purdue.edu.