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Northwest Missouri State University’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion will commemorate the work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. with its annual Celebration Week, beginning Thursday, Jan. 16, and concluding Monday, Jan. 20.
The activities are free and open to the public, including a peace brunch featuring keynote speaker Bilal Clarance, a University alumnus and Northwest Foundation member .
The Northwest community annually gathers for its MLK Peace Brunch, pictured here in January 2024. (Photo by Lauren Adams/Northwest Missouri State University)
“I think it’s important to acknowledge that there are people on campus – faculty, staff, students and even the Maryville community – who value the work of Martin Luther King and are still continuing to do that work,” Dr. Shay Malone, Northwest’s assistant vice president of institutional excellence and global engagement, said.
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion is now giving Northwest employees, students and community members the opportunity to nominate faculty and staff for its annual Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion Awards.
All individuals are invited to nominate a faculty or staff member who has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to Dr. King’s principles and ideals of freedom, equality, justice, liberty, individuality, and respect and furthering Northwest’s commitment to those principles and ideals.
Nominations should be submitted via the online form at this link by Friday, Dec. 6.
Bilal Clarance (Photo by Todd Weddle/Northwest Missouri State University)
The Northwest community is invited to attend the annual MLK Peace Brunch from noon to 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17, in the J.W. Jones Student Union Ballroom. The brunch will honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and legacy while featuring Northwest alumnus Bilal Clarance as the keynote speaker.
Clarance received a bachelor’s degree in interactive digital media with a computer science emphasis at Northwest in 2005 and currently is employed as director of engineering for Google’s graph serving team. He also serves on the executive committee and governance committee of the Northwest Foundation Board of Directors.
As an undergraduate student at Northwest, Clarance was a member of the Bearcat men’s basketball team. He went on to play professionally in Madrid and Germany, in addition to captaining the Danish national team. Since retiring in 2009, he has built his career as a software engineer, working for startups and companies, including Apple, Capital One and now Google.
“I really appreciate seeing how alums continue in some of the legacy of MLK and how they are doing that in their own worlds,” Malone said. “I really think it’s a good idea for our campus to see how they’re still taking the values of Northwest throughout their time.”
Although Martin Luther King Jr. was born Jan. 15, 1929, his birthday has been observed as a national holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, on the third Monday of each January since 1986.
In observance of the holiday, Northwest will not have classes on Monday, Jan. 20, and all University offices are closed.
King’s effort to lead the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and ’60s included the 1963 March on Washington. There, he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, which dramatically raised public consciousness about civil rights and established King as a world figure. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis Tennessee.
Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Week activities at Northwest are sponsored by the University’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. For more information, contact Malone at smalone@zhanmi.net.
