50th Anniversary Commemoration of King's Assassination

The Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford has announced that it will join with the cities of Palo Alto and East Palo Alto to organize a major commemoration of the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination. The celebration of King’s life and legacy will be held at Stanford University on April 3 and at University Circle in East Palo Alto on April 7-8, 2018.

In addition to supporting the local event, Palo Alto Mayor Greg Scharff, East Palo Alto Mayor Larry Moody, and King Institute Director Clayborne Carson have also called upon other Bay Area governmental and private institutions to plan their own commemorations and ongoing programs to realize King’s social justice ideals.

Carson recalled the successful August 2013 commemoration at Palo Alto City Hall of King’s “I Have a Dream” March on Washington oration. “I hope that the University Circle event will similarly reflect this area's commitment to King’s ideals by bringing together a diverse array of speakers and performers in a beautiful location within walking distance of three communities,” Carson said.

Citing King’s special ties to the Bay Area, Carson mentioned that his papers are being edited at Stanford and are being published by the University of California Press. He also noted that King often visited the Bay Area, delivering major speeches in San Francisco as well as at Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley.

Our goals for the Bay Area Commemoration include:

• Endow the King Institute to make King’s words and ideas freely and readily available in the public domain—to educational institutions, researchers, and all people throughout the world.

• Mobilize Silicon Valley’s technology to disseminate King’s ideas in innovative ways, and encourage the creation and growth of civically-engaged, inclusive communities capable of understanding and solving the world’s problems.

• Establish exemplary local, national and global projects designed to serve as models for transforming King’s vision into reality.​

We realize there are many ways to achieve these goals, and we want to hear about your projects.

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