On Feb. 11, Barbara Love, a professor from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, will deliver the keynote speech for Skidmore's annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial observance.
The Office of Student Diversity Programs and Office of Religious and Spiritual Life are sponsoring the lecture, which will take place at 7 p.m. in the Gannett auditorium.
Skidmore plans an event for Martin Luther King Day, a federal holiday, on a yearly basis.
While Skidmore traditionally celebrates the holiday in January, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Jan. 18 birthday was one week prior to spring semester this year. In response, Skidmore's Martin Luther King Day planning committee moved the event to early February.
Richard Chrisman, the director of Religious and Spiritual Life, proposed bringing a speaker to campus to lecture on the religious aspect of Martin Luther King's leadership role throughout the Civil Rights Movement.
"We went after her [Love] expressly because our subject is mainly known as Dr. King, not Rev. King, and I was looking for someone who knew the religious side of the Civil Rights Movement and could talk about the Gandhi-King connection," Chrisman said.
The committee agreed with Chrisman's focus and subsequently searched for a scholar who is knowledgeable of King's focus on religion, work as a reverend and Gandhi-influenced commitment to non-violence during the Civil Rights Movement.
Mariel Martin, director of Student Diversity Programs, supported Chrisman's decision to invite Love because she has attended Love's lectures in the past.
"She [Love] is widely sought out as a speaker nationally," Chrisman said.
Love has addressed audiences on King's commitment to religion and Gandhi's peaceful message.
She has discussed social change and empowerment of women of color and has written about internalized racism and black identity development.
Love recently attended a United Nations World Conference to end racism last summer in Durban, South Africa.
When the committee contacted Love she embraced the engagement. "She was very eager to accept the invitation," Martin said.
Martin believes Skidmore students should attend the lecture to become more informed of the influence Gandhi's nonviolent philosophy had on the Civil Rights Movement.
"We [the Skidmore community] forget about his religious view and using Gandhi's strongly in the civil rights movement," she said.
Beyond the religious element of the lecture, Chrisman encourages students to attend the lecture to realize the importance of race relations in America.
"Race is our number one issue in the U.S., and I want students to remain ever hopeful of reconciliation between the races," he said.
"We [the Skidmore Martin Luther King committee] just want people to come away with awareness in the great role of religion in the Civil Rights Movement," Chrisman added.
The lecture was organized as an event to pay homage to King past Martin Luther King Day.
While the national holiday already passed, February is Black History Month.
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