Service of Significance

If Rosa Parks had taken a poll before
she sat down on the bus in
Montgomery, she’d still be standing.
—Mary Frances Berry

Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday will be marked at Moravian by a first-time community service opportunity, in honor of the openness of spirit of the great civil rights leader, and a speaker who will initiate a program of observances for a landmark civil rights decision.

Mary Frances Berry, former chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 27, about the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Her talk will be in Foy Hall. Information: Ext. 7847.

Berry is Geraldine R. Segal professor of American social thought, professor of history, and adjunct professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania. She was president of the Organization of American Historians in 1990-91.

She was appointed to the commission in 1980 by President Carter, chaired it in 1993-95, and was reappointed as a member by President Clinton in 1999. She had been assistant secretary for education during the Carter administration. Before Penn, she was chancellor of the University of Colorado.

She holds a Ph.D. in history and a law degree from the University of Michigan.

Her address is the first of a series of events on campus commemorating the 1954 Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education that ended the fiction of “separate but equal” segregated schools in the United States.

Sharon Brown of the Office of Institutional Diversity and James Johnson, assistant professor of history, will co-chair a reading-discussion group. Its schedule and other events will be announced in the coming weeks.

On Monday, January 19, when no classes are held in observance of the national Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the College’s community service program offers students an opportunity to give of themselves to the less fortunate.

Two-hour service opportunities are available at such organizations as the soup kitchens at Trinity Episcopal Church, Victory House, and New Bethany Ministries; day- care centers; and Allentown Boys and Girls Clubs. Moravian’s basketball teams will hold a basketball clinic for area children. Students can help with a general clean-up and paint job at Turning Point Domestic Violence Shelter or assist handicapped adults in workshops at VIA. Transportation will be provided for those who need it.

Those interested must sign up by Wednesday, January 14, with community service coordinator Phyllis Walsh, Ext. 1602 or pwalsh@moravian.edu.