UWT MLK Unity Breakfast

MLK Unity Breakfast to Feature Prominent Civil Rights Advocate with Roots to Birmingham Movement of the 1960s

Carolyn McKinstry, who survived the infamous 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, will give the keynote address at the Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast at the University of Washington Tacoma on MLK Day, 8 a.m., Monday, Jan. 21 in William W. Philip Hall.

The breakfast will also feature presentation of the Dream Awards, recognizing a UW Tacoma student organization and a community member or organization that consistently addresses diversity, social justice and civil rights.

Present at one of the pivotal moments in the civil rights movement, McKinstry has devoted herself to community service. Her memoir, While The World Watched, (Tyndale, 2011) details her life growing up in Birmingham, as well as lessons learned from her experiences and involvement in the Birmingham civil rights movement of the 1960s.

McKinstry served for ten years as president of the board of directors of the Sixteenth Street Foundation, Inc., whose mission was the ongoing maintenance of the historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church facility.

Professionally she served as the program manager for the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative, an initiative funded by the Ford and Casey foundations. The SRBWI’s mission is the attainment of economic and social justice for rural women through individual and collective empowerment and capacity building, public policy and advocacy training and educational development and technical assistance.

In 2011, she was selected to serve on the governor’s special three-year Alabama Constitutional Revision Commission. She spends much of her time speaking to young people, public and private educators and institutions about her experiences of the 1960s, making them relevant to today’s environment.

Since its debut in 2007, the MLK Unity Breakfast at UW Tacoma has grown into a popular community-wide event. Space is limited to the first 300 paid participants, and people are encouraged to pre-register.

UW Tacoma and the Black Student Union present the breakfast in commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast
Monday, Jan. 21, 2013
8 to 10:30 a.m. (Doors open at 7:30 a.m.)
William W. Philip Hall, UW Tacoma, 1900 Commerce St., Tacoma

Advance tickets: $15 for general admission, $10 for UW Tacoma student admission and $5 for children age 10 and younger. All tickets are $20 at the door, space permitting.

Reservations: www.tacoma.uw.edu/mlk/