UAF to Host Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in Celebration of Alaska Civil Rights

Submitted by Carla Browning
Phone: (907) 474-7778
01/16/03

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Office of Multicultural Affairs will host a reception for Chaplain (Maj.) Patricia Wilson-Robinson Jan. 17, 2003 from 4 - 5:30 p.m. in the Wood Center multilevel lounge.

Wilson-Robinson is the first female chaplain in the U.S. Military to become a fully certified clinical pastoral education supervisor and the first African-American female to direct and develop a Clinical Pastoral Education Program. Wilson-Robinson was invited to speak in Fairbanks as part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Celebration and Awards Banquet. That event will take place at the Westmark Hotel Gold Room Jan. 18 at 7 p.m.

A celebration of Alaska Civil Rights Day will take place at UAF on Tuesday, Jan. 21 from 3 - 5 p.m. in the Wood Center multilevel lounge. Freeda Hart, a professor with UAF’s Interior-Aleutians campus and a Native American with the Cree Nation of Northern Manitoba, will be the keynote speaker. Her talk is entitled, "Personal Reflections on Colonization: A Global Perspective." Jean Henderson will sing and Rev. Lawrence Gray will deliver Martin Luther King’s famous speech, "I Have a Dream."

In observance of the holiday, there will be no classes and UAF offices will be closed for regular business Monday, Jan. 20, 2003. The University of Alaska Board of Regents approved the holiday and changed the name to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in Celebration of Alaska Civil Rights in 1994. University of Alaska Civil Rights Day has been celebrated at UAF since it was originally established to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., Alaska Native leaders and organizations and others who have led civil rights initiatives benefiting all Alaskans.

CONTACT: LaJuana Williams, Office of Multicultural Affairs at (907) 474-7300 or Carla Browning, UAF University Relations at (907) 474-7778 for more information.