Week's Events Aim to Honor King

Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders will speak at 7:30 p.m. today in Memorial Hall as part of a weeklong campus celebration honoring King's contributions and aiming to improve race relations.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Elders served as surgeon general from 1993 to 1994 during President Clinton's first term, focusing her efforts on health education for the poor. She resigned from the post in 1994 after her statement that masturbation should be taught as part of sexual education in schools caused public criticism.

Coordinators said they expect Elders' speech to relate her experiences in the health care profession to issues of social justice and inequality. "Health care issues and reform aren't at the top of the list and in the forefront of people's minds," said Nadera Malika-Salaam, program coordinator for the Sonja H. Stone Black Cultural Center.

A desire to bring health issues to the forefront stems from hardships Elders encountered as a young person, organizers said. Elders, who grew up as a sharecropper's daughter in rural Arkansas, first visited a doctor during her freshman year of college.

"Given her life and meager beginnings, she served the country as surgeon general, showing the power of the MLK message by overcoming obstacles and giving back to her community and country," said Kristi Booker, president of the Black Student Movement.

Elders' address is part of the campuswide Martin Luther King Jr. week organized by the Chancellor's Committee for the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration. The committee was composed of representatives of several student groups: Campus Y, the Office of Minority Affairs, the BCC, the BSM, the Carolina Union Activities Board and the Carolina Center for Public Service.

Events throughout the week will focus on King's ideas about service and social inequality and the need to take action in the community, organizers said.

To facilitate the dispersion of King's message, Terri Houston, director of on-campus recruitment for the Office of Minority Affairs, will mediate a workshop using role playing and small group discussion to foster self-examination. The workshop will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday in Toy Lounge in Dey Hall.

"We will try to develop ideas that people can take away with them," said CUAB President Krisi Young.

Some of the week's events are designed to promote the exchange of ideas and the discussion of current and future race relations. A dinner discussion at 5 p.m. Wednesday in Toy Lounge called "Breaking the Bread" will provide small-group discussions to integrate the viewpoints of different cultural backgrounds. Organizers said they hope to stress the need for continuing service beyond the end of the week.

"This week represents just one day but also how people should strive to live life," Malika-Salaam said. "The variety of events allows people to get together and see the similarities and commonalities that they have."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.