Martin Luther King Jr. Week
Bucknell's Martin Luther King Jr. Week is an annual campus-wide gathering that honors Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and legacy through questioning, learning and community engagement. The week brings artists, activists, scholars, and community partners to campus for performances, lectures, workshops and discussions that connect Dr. King's vision and philosophies to contemporary struggles.
Mission
To annually provide an opportunity for reflection that encourages the Bucknell campus and larger community to actively engage Dr. King's legacy by recognizing "a time comes when silence is betrayal” (Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence) and acting on “a common concern for the moral health of our nation." (The Three Evils of Society). These diverse experiences and events are designed to educate on Dr. King’s historical and contemporary impact, explore issues of equity, solidarity and justice and prompt commitments to collective action toward dismantling systems of oppression.
MLK Week 2027
Where Do We Go From Here?
This year's theme - Where Do We Go From Here? - takes its title from the final book that King published in his lifetime, as well as a speech of the same name given on Aug. 16, 1967. King recognized that even though the civil rights movement had won considerable legislative victories in the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, there was still much work to be done. The movement must not rest on its laurels or become self-satisfied.
"With all the struggle and all the achievements, we must face the fact, however, that the Negro still lives in the basement of the Great Society. He is still at the bottom, despite the few who have penetrated to slightly higher levels. Even where the door has been forced partially open, mobility for the Negro is still sharply restricted. There is often no bottom at which to start, and when there is there's almost no room at the top. In consequence, Negroes are still impoverished aliens in an affluent society. They are too poor even to rise with the society, too impoverished by the ages to be able to ascend by using their own resources. And the Negro did not do this himself; it was done to him. For more than half of his American history, he was enslaved. Yet, he built the spanning bridges and the grand mansions, the sturdy docks and stout factories of the South. His unpaid labor made cotton "King" and established America as a significant nation in international commerce. Even after his release from chattel slavery, the nation grew over him, submerging him. It became the richest, most powerful society in the history of man, but it left the Negro far behind."
Previous MLK Week Themes
To access an MLK Week video or audio recording you will be asked to log in with your Bucknell credentials. If you are interested in seeing a video, but do not have Bucknell credentials, please email griot@bucknell.edu with your request.