Celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

SMU is marking the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's speech this week with a presentation, "Day of Service," participation in a citywide parade and various other activities.

A contingent of SMU representatives, including Student Body President Carlton Adams, Association of Black Students President D’Marquis Allen and former Student Senate Chair Charles Cox, who introduced King before his speech at SMU, presented a transcript of the speech and a photo from the event to the Dallas Civil Rights Museum at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center on Jan. 15. More about the presentation.

In addition, SMU students, faculty and staff joined in helping others with a "Day of Service" and were a part of the annual Dallas Martin Luther King, Jr., Day Parade. More about Day of Service.

From KERA Public Radio:

For SMU Students, MLK Day Of Service Means Hard Work Instead Of Time Off

By Courtney Collins

Honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. with a day of service is a tradition North Texans are embracing. From painting murals to building wheelchair ramps, hundreds of volunteers spent the day giving back to their community.

Spending the afternoon at a south eastern Dallas non-profit that specializes in horse therapy sounds pretty great. Intelligent, friendly animals, sunshine and plenty of fresh air.

Also, lumber that needs to be hauled, stalls ready for mucking and feed buckets that won’t wash themselves. For the SMU students volunteering at Equest’s Texas Horse Park, MLK Day isn’t about taking a break, it’s about getting to work.

“When everyone else is taking the day off, we’re taking the day on," says site leader and SMU senior Nohemi Mora.

She says 170 of her fellow students devoted their school holiday to community service, part of what’s been dubbed “Dream Week.”

“So we have several events going on, we start off with service and we have a unity walk on Wednesday and it’s just a lot of events to bring awareness to the work of Dr. Martin Luther King and try to live through what he taught," she says.

Read or listen to the full story.

From The Dallas Morning News

Group gives King’s SMU speech transcript to Dallas Civil Rights Museum

By Holly Hacker

Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Southern Methodist University at the invitation of students.

On Friday, past and current SMU student leaders honored that historic visit at the Dallas Civil Rights Museum. They gave the museum a bound transcript of King’s talk at SMU, along with a photo taken of him there.

Members of SMU’s Student Senate wrote to King in August 1965 asking him to speak on the Hilltop. It wasn’t their first request.

The students’ persistence paid off. King spoke to SMU students and faculty on March 17, 1966. One year earlier, King had led marchers 57 miles from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery in support of voting rights for blacks.

At SMU, King told the standing-room-only crowd that while the country had come a long way in dismantling segregation, “We still have a long, long way to go before the problem of racial injustice is solved in our country.”

Read the full story.

See the full schedule of Dream Week events at SMU.

More about Dr. King at SMU in 1966.