A special College Coffee Tuesday is one of multiple events this month celebrating the life and legacy of the late civil rights leaders.
Along with taking time to catch up with each other following the holiday break, members of the Elon University community took the opportunity to reflect on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the first College Coffee of 2018.
The weekly event that offers a chance to gather and socialize took on additional meaning on Tuesday, with the special event just one of many around campus throughout this month to celebrate the legacy of the late civil rights leader. Students, faculty and staff gathered in the Moseley Center's McKinnon Hall to share a cup of coffee and their thoughts about the accomplishments of King.
Brandon Bell, assistant director of The Center for Race, Ethnicity and Diversity Education, said that nearly 50 years after King was killed, American society is still having many of the same conversations about how race and ethnicity factor into the access and success people may see. "People ask why do we still celebrate Martin Luther King and what's the significance of MLK in 2018, or what's the significance of MLK here at Elon," Bell said.
Bell said he found many parallels in the mission statement of Elon and values that King stood for during his life. "There's a common theme about mind, body and spirit," Bell said. "When you think about the work of MLK, when you think about his life and his profession and his vocations, it speaks directly to the mind, body and spirit — the mind being the ideology that all people are created equal, the body being that regardless of identities, we can be together in this room, in the spirit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Elon will continue to honor King and his work this week with events including volunteer opportunities with Allied Churches of Alamance County on Wednesday and Thursday and the Martin Luther King Jr. Circle of Hope Dialogue on Wednesday. More information and the full lineup of events is available here.