Events celebrate, remember King

Area residents will commemorate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. during several events this week and next. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Monday.

•Marilyn Schuler, former executive director of the Idaho Human Rights Commission, will speak each day this week to every elementary school in Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls, according to Tony Stewart, of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.

Schuler also will speak at 9:30 a.m. Friday to area fifth-graders at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Children’s Program at the North Idaho College Shuler Auditorium in Coeur d’Alene.

•Mike Tate, vice president for equity and diversity at Washington State University, will provide the keynote address at a Remembrance Program at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Holy Temple Church of God in Christ, 806 W. Indiana Ave. in Spokane.

•Monday events in Spokane will begin at 10 a.m. with a brief program, including excerpts from King’s speeches and a Native American ceremony in the atrium of the INB Performing Arts Center on Spokane Falls Boulevard.

Immediately after the program, the annual Unity March will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the Michael Anderson statue in the breezeway between the performing arts center and the Convention Center.

This year’s theme is “Rekindle the Light in the Dream.”

The march will end at River Park Square, where speakers will include Rodolfo Arévalo, president of Eastern Washington University, and the Rev. Happy Watkins will deliver King’s “I Had a Dream” speech. A resource fair at River Park Square will follow the march from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

•The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations annual gala will be at the Highlands Day Spa (the old Highlands golf club), 4365 E. Inverness Drive in Post Falls, from 5 to 9 p.m. on Monday. Tickets may be purchased at the door for $25.

•Spokane Falls Community College’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Remembrance Luncheon will begin at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday in Building 17 Sub lounges A and B, 3410 W. Fort George Wright Drive. Tickets are $7. Call (509)533-4331.

•Gonzaga University will celebrate the slain civil rights leader in prayer from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the University Chapel, third floor of the administration building.

The public event is free.

Anyone interested in presenting a prayer should contact Ki’Jev King at kgurley@gonzaga.edu.

•Also at Gonzaga, a Martin Luther King Jr. video will be presented continuously Wednesday through Jan. 19 at Cataldo Hall, and an exhibit by African American artist Faith Ringgold opens Jan. 19 in the Jundt Art Museum.