Campus & Community

Campus events celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Yale will honor the late civil rights leader with a series of events, including a library exhibition, musical performances, and a forum on how policy can address inequalities in the U.S.

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Illustration of Martin Luther King Jr. in a cap and gown on Yale campus

Illustration by Eri Griffin

Campus events celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
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The Yale and New Haven communities will recognize the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. with a series of events on campus and beyond, including a talk by Bishop William J. Barber II, a moral movement leader and founding director of Repairers of the Breach, which trains social justice leaders.

Barber, who is also founding director of the Yale Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, will address King’s “last message to us now” during Yale’s annual MLK Commemoration event on Jan. 27.

Other events honoring King and his legacy, starting this weekend, will include a special one-day exhibition of materials related to the civil rights leader at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, an annual celebration of King’s legacy of social and environmental justice, a gospel teach-in featuring the songs of the civil rights movement, and a Yale forum on how evidence-based policy can help address inequality in the United States. The Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday is observed this year on Jan. 20.

The full schedule of events can be found at mlk.yale.edu.

‘More than a Sermon’

Members of the Yale and Greater New Haven communities are invited to attend the event featuring Barber, which will begin at 6 p.m. in Battell Chapel (400 College St.) on Jan. 27. Doors open at 5:15 p.m. The event is free, but registration is required

Barber, who has spent more than 30 years in pastoral ministry and served in numerous public leadership roles, came to Yale in 2022 as founding director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, which pursues teaching, practice, research, and collaboration at the intersection of theology and advocacy.

Barber established Repairers of the Breach, which trains communities in moral movement building, and co-anchored the revival of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. He is the author of five books, including his latest, “White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy.” 

His talk is titled “More than a Sermon: Martin’s Last Message to Us Now.”

MLK and Black Freedom Movement 

On Sunday, Jan. 19, the public is invited to visit a special display of materials from the Beinecke Library’s collection related to King. The exhibition, “MLK and the Black Freedom Movement,” will be on view from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the courtyard-level reading room of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (121 Wall St.).

The one-day exhibition, which includes materials from the library’s James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African American Arts and Letters, will highlight King’s life, legacy, and impact, and the U.S. civil rights movement. The display will also include materials about Black New Haven history and the lives and legacies of Yale’s earliest Black students, from the 1830s into the 20th century. Admission is free.

Celebrating King’s legacy of social and environmental justice

On Monday, Jan. 20, the Yale Peabody Museum, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and the New Haven Museum will host the 29th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy of Social and Environmental Justice celebration.

The event, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Yale Peabody Museum (170 Whitney Avenue) and the New Haven Museum (114 Whitney Avenue), will include musical and choral performances, kid-friendly crafts, food trucks, and a poetry slam. View the full schedule of events.

Harmony in Action 

Also on Jan. 20, the Haven String Quartet from Music Haven (a New Haven school that empowers young people through tuition-free music education, mentoring, and performance); Harmony in Action, Music Haven’s student ensemble; and St. Luke’s Steel Band will offer a musical performance to honor King’s legacy. The event will take place from 2 to 3 p.m. at First and Summerfield United Methodist Church (FSUMC) in New Haven (425 College St.).

Songs & Words of Hope and Courage

The music of the Civil Rights Movement, rooted in scripture and prayer, helped carry the movement from the sanctuary to the streets. During a Jan. 20 event, “Songs & Words of Hope and Courage – Gospel Teach-in and Encouragement for Troubled Times,” Christoph McFadden, a Ph.D. student in music and African-American studies at Yale, and Tina Colón Williams, worship pastor at Elm City Vineyard Church (ECV), will discuss this music, followed by exhortations and prayers. The event will begin at 7 p.m. at the First and Summerfield United Methodist Church in New Haven (425 College St.). Admission is free.

At 10 a.m. on Jan. 20, EVC and the Monk Center will host a family event featuring storytelling, activities, and songs from the Civil Rights Movement. It is free and open to the public.

On Sunday, Jan. 26, ECV will host a discussion about nonviolence and its potential to achieve justice today. The event, “Nonviolence: Their Stories and Our Stories,” will begin at 6:15 p.m. at FSUMC. The event is free and open to the public.

Book talk with Bishop Barber

On Wednesday, Jan. 22, Barber, director of the Yale Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, will join David Blight, Sterling Professor of American History at Yale, for a conversation about his book, “White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy.” 

The event is sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University; and the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School. It is co-sponsored by Belonging at Yale, Greater New Haven NAACP, and The Campaign School at Yale. 

The event will be held at 5 p.m. in Henry R. Luce Hall (34 Hillhouse Ave.), Room 101, in New Haven. Admission is free but advance registration is required

Creating justice: A forum on public policy

The Center for Public Theology and Public Policy and the Eisenhower Foundation will host a policy forum on how to address inequality in American public life. 

During the event, “Creating Justice: A Forum on Evidence-based Policies and the Will We Need to Win Them,” Barber and Alan Curtis, president of the Eisenhower Foundation, will be joined by Yale Law Professor Elizabeth Hinton and Yale Center for Faith and Culture Director Miroslav Volf for a discussion on the moral issues at stake in policy debates and the role of public theology in building the movement for “a Third Reconstruction.”

The event, which is open to the Yale community, will begin at 4:30 p.m. at Yale Divinity School’s Old Refectory. The event is free but registration is required.

Mondays at Beinecke: Early Black students at Yale

On Monday, Jan. 27, the Beinecke Library will host an online discussion about research that has emerged from an ongoing research project, Shining Light on Truth: Early Black Students at Yale, as part of its regular “Mondays at Beinecke” series.

The conversation, which will be led by library staff, will explore the lives of several of the nearly 240 Black students whose stories have been documented as part of the research project and their contributions to the civil rights movement. These individuals, who attended Yale from the 1830s to 1940, were involved in important civil rights work in New Haven, in their home cities, and on a national level.

The event, which is open to the public, will begin at 4 p.m. View the online registration link