Monday, Jan. 20

Both the MLK Day keynote gathering in Gomes Chapel and the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays 1920 Debate are streamed live and available for on-demand viewing immediately afterwards.

9am – 10:30am | The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Keynote

President’s Welcome

Garry W. Jenkins, President of Bates College

Introduction of Keynote Speaker

Tyler Harper, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Co-chair of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Planning Committee

Keynote Address

Erica Chenoweth

Closing

James Reese, Associate Dean of International Student Programs, Member of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Planning Committee

Location: Gomes Chapel | Reserve ticket here

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4:45–5:30pm | The Rev. Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays Debate

Debate: Presented by students from Morehouse and Bates colleges, this debate honors the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Mays, a 1920 Bates graduate, prominent debater, longtime Morehouse president, pioneer of the civil rights movement, and important mentor to Martin Luther King Jr.

This year’s topic is “Resolved: Law and order exists for the purpose of establishing justice.” It draws from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in which King decried the inaction of the country’s faint-hearted “white moderates” who professed allegiance to the civil rights movement yet seemed to prefer inaction to action.

King wrote, “I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”

Location: Olin Concert Hall | Reserve ticket here