On MLK Day, the scholars will participate for the second time in a day of service, helping organizations throughout the community. In fact, this program was created specifically to focus on service and social justice, using Dr. King’s work and the Civil Rights Movement as the primary points of study.

Second-year scholars travel to the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement – Selma, Birmingham, Montgomery and Memphis – to explore these historical areas firsthand and gain new insight from the era and how to apply it to their academic and professional endeavors.

“Students who apply to the program seek it out because of its focus on social justice issues and because they want to become social agents of change for their communities,” Russell said. “Our program is young, but we have a lot of success stories, including students who have gone onto law school and to med school. Our students are doing big things.”

Russell adds that while housed in the University Housing Program, the MLK Scholars Program could not thrive the way it does without support from the Cultural Center, Admissions, the Anne Braden Institute, Social Change, the Peace, Justice and Conflict Transformation Program and others.

The 2023 cohort

Arianna Moya Porras, from Louisville, is the founder and field organizer of the Latino and Hispanic Empowerment Organization, and is also the vice-president and co-founder of the Earth Activists and the Community Outreach Coordinator for her school’s Immigration and Refugee Assistance Program. Arianna is also involved with organizations such as the Y Club, One Blue Wall Literary Magazine, Women in Science and Engineering, and the Muhammad Ali Center Council of Students, among others. She has dedicated over 120 hours of tutoring help to the Americana Community Center. Her peace/social justice area of interest is increasing Hispanic voter engagement and education. She majors in political science.

Marco Munoz, a bioengineering major from Louisville, is involved with a number of organizations, including the Latin American and Hispanic Student Organization, the Beta Club, the Science Olympiad, and all-county orchestra. He volunteers with the Americana Community Center, La Casita Community Center, the Kentucky Humane Society, and the Adelante Hispanic Achievers. His peace/social justice area of interest is removing barriers and increasing opportunities for immigrant students.

Exile Lukudu, from Louisville, a biology major, played soccer, viola and Conga drums at his high school, Butler. In his community, Exile has held leading roles in church plays and acts as a leader in his youth group. His peace/social justice area of interest is eliminating discrimination through cultural understanding and appreciation.

Rachel Burns, a sociology major from Lexington, can play eight instruments. Rachel serves as a mentor to orchestral students and as a camp counselor at the Wesley Woods Summer Camp for elementary and middle school students. She has helped organize Black History Pajama Night every year since 2012 at a local elementary school, and is a mentor for the Girls Guiding Girls Program. She is involved with clubs such as the Younglife Club, the Equity in Advanced Placement program, the History Club, and the Psychology Club. As a hostess at Texas Roadhouse, she translates for Spanish-speaking customers. Her peace/social justice area of interest is spreading awareness of police brutality against the African American community through education and art.

Olivia Ridgeway, from Versailles, double-majors in political science and Pan-African studies. She has served as a moderator for the Chamber of Commerce Political Forums, has interned for the Amy McGrath for Congress Campaign, has coordinated and hosted the Versailles Mayor Debate, created the Random Acts of Kindness Club, and interned for the Spark Community Café. Olivia has been involved in many other organizations, including the NIA African American Girls Alliance Club, the Film Club, the Woodford Student Leadership Council, and the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra. Her peace/social justice area of interest is combatting homelessness through sustainable housing and food programs.

Camila Perez, from Bowling Green, is a chemistry major who served as an officer of the Science Club and is a member of the National BETA Club, the Spanish National Honors Society, the Spirit Club, and the Future Healthcare Professionals in high school. She was also a varsity member of the track and field team. Camila has helped organized a Walk for Water, raising money for drinking wells in impoverished countries, and has volunteered with the Salvation Army and United Way. Her peace/social justice area of interest is cultivating cultural literacy and decrease hiring discrimination.

Louisville native Nyah Smith, a bioengineering major, played for her high school girls basketball while tutoring middle school students through the Cabbage Patch and B-Elite Mentoring Programs. Nyah has also developed and implemented a study skills enrichment program. Additionally, Nyah was a member of the Black Student Union, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and has participated in the 2018 National Youth Leadership Program, focusing on Medicine. Her peace/social justice area of interest is improving education for Black students to overcome social, economic, and political oppression.

Afi Tagnedji from Todome, Togo, is majoring in biochemistry. She was the head of surgery within her school’s chapter of the Future Physicians of America Club, as well as president of her Student Body Council and captain of both the Rifle Team and the Lady Raiders Soccer team. She has served on the Jefferson County Superintendent Advisory Council and the Academic team, as well as on the Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. In her community, Afi has volunteered for the Youth Service Center, as a peer tutor, and for the Student Leadership Team Planning Committee. Her peace/social justice area of interest is affordable healthcare.

Louisville native Sadie Finley serves as a Youth Development Specialist at Saint Vincent dePaul Family Success Center, where she helps low-income and homeless students with homework. In her community, she volunteers extensively with the Jefferson County Public Schools’ Diversity, Equity, and Poverty Committee. Her roles include camp counselor at the Girls Excelling in Math and Science program, STEM-based Camp Invention, and the Summer Literacy Program at St. Vincent dePaul. Sadie is also a member of YPAS concert choir and guitar ensemble, the Black Student Union, the Crimson Scholars, and the Kiwanis Key Club. Sadie’s peace/social justice area of interest is minority youth education and support.

Louisville native Gordon Rowe III majors in finance with a minor in political science. In high school, he held numerous leadership roles, including president of his senior class, treasurer of his junior class, President of the Black Student Union, and Student Ambassador for two years. He also works as a Kids Club Attendant through the YMCA, is a member of the Muhammad Ali Council of Students, the Future Business Leaders of America, the John Schnatter Economics Program, and the YMCA Black Achievers. In his community, Gordon has volunteered with numerous neighborhood cleanups and served at Family Scholar House and Hotel Louisville. His peace/social justice area of interest is empowering Black citizens in West Louisville educationally and economically.

In 1990, the voters of Arizona rejected a proposal to create a paid holiday for MLK Day. This happened while the University of Louisville Football team, under the lead of Coach Howard Schnellenberger, was slated to play in the Sunkist Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Arizona, on Jan. 1, 1991, versus Alabama.

Their original opponent was the University of Virginia, but that university declined the bid in the wake of Arizona’s controversial vote.

UofL accepted the bid, a move one Louisville civil rights leader called “morally regrettable,” according to the book “The University of Louisville,” by Dwayne D. Cox and William J. Morison.

Still, UofL trustee chair Woodford Porter Sr. urged acceptance, as did the football team’s players, who voted unanimously to play.

Those players wore a patch during the game that read,” The Dream Lives On,” as well as a helmet decal representing the university’s cultural diversity. (Alabama players wore black armbands with “MLK” on them).

Notably, the university stood to gain as much as $2.5 million for its partic

ipation, and the bowl’s sponsors pledged an additional $200,000 for minority student scholarship at the participating schools.

UofL President Donald C. Swain proposed using the bowl revenue to strengthen UofL programs benefiting minority students, appointing a committee to explore ways in which to do so. A Martin Luther King Endowment Fund was subsequently created.

Swain also promised to find funds to create a campus center dedicated to cultural diversity and to enhance the College of Arts & Sciences’ Pan-African Studies Department. The multicultural center opened in 1991 with funds resulting from discussions which arose out of the Fiesta Bowl controversy.

Arizona voters later established MLK Day as a paid holiday in 1992. UofL also got the bowl win, 34-7.

The week kicks off Monday, Jan. 15, with the MLK Day of Service.ĚýLegislation was signed in 1983 creating a federal holiday marking the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1994, Congress passed the King Holiday and Service Act, designating the MLK Jr. federal holiday as a national day of service. It is the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service. The UofL community will participate in the “day on, not a day off” event Monday at various sites throughout the city. Students will meet at 8:30 a.m. in Strickler Hall. This event is sponsored by the Engage, Lead, Serve Board.

The African American Theatre Program’s annual MLK Celebration is at 1 p.m. Jan. 15, with a staged reading of “Free Lunch,”a piece written by Troy Johnson. More information is .Ěý

The Louisville Bus Civil Rights Tour is Jan. 16, with a 12:10 p.m. departure from the Cultural Center.ĚýThe City of Louisville was an active site during the Civil Rights Movement.ĚýThis tour explores how the 20th-century civil rights movement changed lives at the South’s northern border for African Americans and also for whites and, now, for the new immigrants who are bringing greater cultural diversity in the 21st century. Registration for the free tour can be done online.Ěý

On Wednesday, Jan. 17, a film screening of “American Experience: Freedom Riders,” will be shown at 5:30 p.m. in Chao Auditorium of Ekstrom Library.ĚýIn 1961, segregation seemed to have an overwhelming grip on American society. That is, until an integrated band of college students – many of whom were the first in their families to attend a university – decided, en masse, to risk everything and buy a ticket on a Greyhound bus bound for the Deep South. They called themselves the Freedom Riders and this movie tells their story.Ěý

For the full list of MLK Week events, .Ěý

The program’s annual is 1 p.m., Jan 15, and features a staged reading of “Free Lunch,” a piece written by Troy Johnson, a participant in the 2017 workshops “.”  This free, public presentation will include music, theater and dance at The Playhouse, 1911 S. Third St.

The African American Theatre Program also presents “,” Feb. 23 through March 4, in celebration of Black History Month.

Directed by Jacqueline Thompson, “Fabulation” is a social satire about an ambitious, haughty African American woman, Undine Barnes Calles, whose husband suddenly disappears after embezzling all of her money. Pregnant and on the brink of social and financial ruin, Undine retreats to her childhood home in Brooklyn’s Walt Whitman projects, only to discover that she must cope with a crude new reality. Undine faces the challenge of transforming her setbacks into small victories in a battle for self-affirmation. Written by Lynn Nottage, “Fabulation” is a comeuppance tale with a comic twist.

The play starts at 8 p.m. Feb. 23 and 24 and at 3 p.m. Feb. 25. It resumes at 8 p.m. March 1-3 and at 3 p.m. March 4 in the Thrust Theatre Studio Arts Building, 2314 S.Ěý Floyd St. Tickets are $8 for UofL students, $12 for other students and alumni, faculty, staff and seniors and $15 for general admission.

Many of the programs were organized by the Cultural Center and take aim at educating the community about King’s ideals of social justice, nonviolence, education and service.

Key programs during are:

• Jan. 13 – Louisville Downtown Civil Rights Trail, a bus tour of sites important during the struggle. The 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. tour departs from the Cultural Center. Seats are limited and is required.
• Jan. 16 – , one of UofL’s largest community service events of the year. The program kicks off at 9:30 a.m. at the SAC. At 11:15 a.m. participants will board buses to visit one of nine local nonprofit organizations. Typical duties include painting, cleaning, winterizing homes and working with youth.
• Jan. 16 – Under the theme of “revolutionary multiracial dialogue,” a program featuring music, dance and speakers by the African American Theatre Program will run from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at The Playhouse, 1911 S. Third St.
• Jan. 18 – Women in the Movement Discussion, a talk by Kaila Story, an associate professor of women’s and gender studies. Story’s noon to 1:30 p.m. discussion at the Cultural Center is about women’s roles in the civil rights movement.  
• Jan. 19 – “Children of the Civil Rights,” a about a group of Oklahoma children and their six-year struggle against oppression prior to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Discussion follows. Film begins at 6 p.m., Chao Auditorium, Ekstrom Library.
• Jan. 20 – Lunch and MLK Dream Wall signing, noon to 2 p.m., Cultural Center. People can share messages of unity, love, inspiration and equality as MLK Week concludes.