50 Years of "I Have a Dream"

Please join the campus and community for a series of events commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the historic 1963 March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

August 28 events will be as follows:

• At noon, Rev. Tracey Ruffin will facilitate at discussion about the civil rights movement, as a way for the entire community to express views and reflections.
• At 2 p.m., on Appian Way in front of the Mason Library, faculty, staff, alumni, students, and other community members (including Molly Kelly, Jay Kahn, and author Ernie Hebert, among many others) will join in reading Dr. King’s speech.
• At 3 p.m., Keene will join communities around the world in participating in “Let Freedom Ring,” in which church bells (and the campus carillon) will be rung in commemoration.
• At 7:30 p.m., there will be a panel discussion in the Mabel Brown on the past, present, and future of civil rights , moderated by student Emily Amoche and featuring Rev. Tracey Ruffin, former NH Representative Harvey Keye, Dr. James Waller, Fernando Osorio, and Charles Owusu ‘99.
• Mason Library will have a book display with the March on Washington theme, and the Student Center is planning a display of its own.

All events are free and open to the public, and are a joint effort between Office of Diversity and Multiculturalism, American Democracy Project, and the symposium committee.