Gonzaga hosting voter rights presentation after Martin Luther King Jr. Day march

Gonzaga University will host a presentation on voter rights, voter suppression and racial inequities in the criminal justice system on Monday afternoon, after marchers take to the streets of downtown Spokane to honor Martin Luther King Jr.

The two-hour presentation, titled “Lifting as We Climb: A Teach-In on Voter Rights and Suppression,” will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the third-floor ballroom of Gonzaga’s Hemmingson Center. It will be free and open to the public.

The presentation will feature speakers from the Spokane NAACP, the Spokane County elections office and Gonzaga’s department of sociology and criminology. They will cover topics including the civil rights movement, voter rights and suppression, and local efforts to increase access to and participation in democracy.

The presentation will take place after the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Unity Rally and March, which starts at the Spokane Convention Center at 10 a.m.

Separately, comedian and social commentator W. Kamau Bell will speak Thursday evening during an event celebrating King at Washington State University’s main campus in Pullman.

The event, which will start at 6:30 p.m., will be livestreamed in the Student Diversity Center on WSU’s Spokane campus. The live broadcast will be free and open to the public.