Bates receives Martin Luther King award

Bates College has received the 1998 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Corporate Award given annually by the Portland NAACP to a corporation or organization exemplifying the philosophies of the late civil rights leader.

Awarded at the 17th annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast celebration in Portland last month, the award cites Bates’s commitment to and leadership in “providing professional employment and access to education for people of color.”

In recognition of the college’s achievements, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People praised the college’s recruitment of faculty, staff and students of color, as well as hosting prominent speakers of color on campus. “Bates has several African-American chairs of departments and dean of students which means that African- Americans are visible in the administrative ranks of the college,” the award citation read.

Joanna E. Lee, director of affirmative action at Bates, accepted the award on behalf of the college.