Lenoir-Rhyne College will honor the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with several events

This year’s celebration will begin Jan. 11 with Sankofa, the African-American Museum on Wheels. Sankofa is presented by Angela Jennings from Denmark, S.C., and exhibits art and artifacts from the United States, West Africa, the U. S. Virgin Islands and Europe. It is divided into five categories of collectibles: Famous African-Americans, African-American Stamps, Kwanzaa, African-American Books, and African-American Inventors.

Sankofa will be on exhibit in the Cromer Center Lobby at Lenoir-Rhyne College at 3-5 p.m. Jan. 11. It is free and open to the public.

This year’s Martin Luther King Day guest speaker will be the Rev. Julius Carroll from Chicago, Ill. He is the director for African-American/Black Ministries-Multicultural Ministries for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

There are two opportunities to hear him. On Sunday, Jan. 14 at 3 p.m., he will preach at the Community Martin Luther King Jr. Service at the Hickory Museum of Art. Following the service, guests are invited to view the museum’s exhibits related to African-American art. These include an exhibit by Sharif Bey, assistant professor of art education at Winston-Salem State University; African American Folk Art from the museum’s permanent collection; and an exhibit of paintings and poetry by Arbon Lane called “A Black Man Speaks.”

On Monday, Jan. 15, Carroll will speak to the Lenoir-Rhyne and Hickory community at 10 a.m. in the P.E Monroe Auditorium on the Lenoir-Rhyne College campus. The auditorium is located at 775 6th St. N.E., in Hickory. Immediately afterward, the annual Martin Luther King Day March, sponsored by the NAACP Youth Chapter, will begin at the P.E. Monroe Auditorium.

Carroll holds a bachelor of arts from Queens College, City University of New York; and a master of divinity from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. He will receive his doctor of ministry from that seminary in May 2007.

Before accepting his present position with the ELCA, he served at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Oakland, Calif.; Our Redeemer Lutheran Church of Washington, D.C.; and Reformation Lutheran Church in Philadelphia. He also served as assistant to the bishop for urban ministry/Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod from 1983 to 1990.

He has been active in the ELCA at the synodical, regional and churchwide levels. He previously served as chairperson of the ELCA Division for Outreach Board; as dean of the Washington, D.C., Conference; and as a facilitator of an Oakland-Berkeley-Alameda, Calif., Strategic Planning Process. He was project manager for the “ELCA African Descent Strategic Plan: Many Voices, Tell the Story, Create the Vision: Build Our Future.” He has also published two sermons related to Martin Luther King’s legacy.

© 2007 Lenoir-Rhyne College