MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Members of the Morgantown community are ready to celebrate the legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.
West Virginia University and the Community Coalition for Social Justice of West Virginia will host two separate celebrations during Martin Luther King Jr. Day Weekend, with the first taking place on Saturday at the Mountainlair, the Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast.
“We’re really excited to celebrate him, celebrate our scholarships, and be with the community,” WVU Center for Black Culture Interim Director Javier McCoy said.
The breakfast will include a keynote speech from former President Barack Obama education appointee Tiffany Dena Loftin as well as the presentation of the recipients for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship. According to McCoy, the recipients of the scholarships were determined with the help of representatives of the WVU Center of Black Culture and members of the local community.
“This year we had about 15 applications for the scholarships this year. The scholarship and the achievement award both go through the MLK committee, which is comprised of faculty, staff, students, and some community members,” McCoy said.
WVU has hosted the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast since 1990 as part of an effort to honor the civil rights legacy of Dr. King and the work taken by members of the local community to support civil rights. This will be recognized with the WVU Center of Black Culture Achievement MLK Achievement Award, which will be awarded to WVU Health Sciences Center Honors College Director Dr. Gregory Epps.
“It’s an amazing event, one, because we get to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but we also get to bring the community into this,” said McCoy.
The Coalition for Social Justice of West Virginia will host a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration on Monday at 2 p.m. where local civil rights will be recognized through a presentation of a graphic novel. This will include a Zoom presentation of ‘West Virginians Experiences in Civil Rights: How We Have Been Connected All Along’ by Eve Faulkes as well as interviews from local civil rights activists who are presented in the graphic novel, including Al Anderson, who marched in Washington D.C. during the Civil Rights March of 1963. With WVU’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute collaborating on the event, WVU plans to honor Dr. King’s legacy on several different platforms.
“We’re doing a celebration of local people, West Virginia folks,” said event organizer Mike Attfield.