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Folt, Lynch to be featured speakers during Carolina’s MLK Celebration Week

The week-long celebration includes the University/Community Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Banquet and Award Presentation, a MLK Day of Service 5K, an MLK Lecture and Awards ceremony, a candlelight vigil and other activities.

The seal of the University on a stone column by an entrance to UNC's campus.
Fall scene of the seal of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill affixed to a stone pillar at the Cameron Avenue entrance. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

Chancellor Carol L. Folt and North Carolina native and former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch will be featured speakers during UNC-Chapel Hill’s 2018 MLK Celebration Week that starts on Jan. 14. This year’s theme is “Voices. Presence. Community.”

The week-long celebration includes the University/Community Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Banquet and Award Presentation, a MLK Day of Service 5K, an MLK Lecture and Awards ceremony, a candlelight vigil and other activities.

“We are truly honored to have two such esteemed speakers at our MLK events. Carolina’s very own Chancellor Folt and the 83rd U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch have both dedicated themselves to advocacy and service,” said G. Rumay Alexander, Carolina’s chief diversity officer and associate vice chancellor for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. “Especially during these unprecedented times, their work continues to provide momentum and persistence to Dr. King’s legacy of equality, inclusion and peace.”

The annual University/Community Martin Luther King Jr. Banquet and Award Presentation kicks off the week’s events. The banquet, hosted by the MLK University/Community Planning Corp. in partnership with Carolina’s Diversity and Inclusion office, will be held on Jan. 14 at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education. Folt will give the keynote address.

Lynch will deliver the 2018 MLK Keynote Lecture at 7 p.m. on Jan. 18 at Memorial Hall. The event also includes the presentation of the University’s MLK Scholarships and Unsung Hero Awards.

Read more about the MLK Week of Celebration on the Diversity and Inclusion website.