Skip to main content

ASU campuses to host Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations


Eugene Grigsby Jr.
January 11, 2010

ASU will celebrate the ideals of Martin Luther King Jr. with several scheduled events in January on all four campuses.

Students at the Tempe campus will kick off the celebration with a Day of Service on Jan. 18, followed by a rally of performances at 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 19. The Polytechnic campus will host an MLK celebration breakfast from 7-9 a.m., Jan. 19, in the Cooley Ballroom of the Student Union. Middle-school students will re-enact King’s march on Washington, D.C., on Jan 20 at the West campus. The Downtown Phoenix campus will hold a spoken word event at 7 p.m., Jan. 21 in the Nursing Phase II Building, Room 110.

The Jan. 19 breakfast will honor two community leaders who embody King’s ideal of leadership through service. The event also will recognize 24 schoolchildren from around the state who won ASU’s annual MLK poster-essay contest. The winning posters are on display in the first floor of Fletcher Library at the West campus.

Eugene Grigsby Jr. – artist, educator, author and community leader – will receive ASU’s 2010 MLK Servant-Leadership Award for his work to inspire and uplift African Americans and others with his art and his service to the community. As a high school teacher and later a professor of art at ASU, Grigsby developed a national reputation for his contributions to education, organizing exhibitions and also working with children’s organizations and human resource centers. Two years ago he received an award from the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C., for his distinguished contributions. Now 91, he still is active in the community.

Dominick Hernandez, a senior in business at the Polytechnic campus, was chosen to receive the MLK Student Servant-Leadership Award. After six years in the U.S. Army and five years in the business world, he enrolled at the Polytechnic campus almost two years ago and quickly became a leader. He organized an Artist Mic Night, helped found a student group for sustainability, co-founded a leadership and success society, and became director of Polytechnic’s Arizona Students at ASU.

Offices and classrooms on the four ASU campuses will be closed on Jan. 18 to observe the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

To request an invitation to the breakfast, contact the ASU Office of Special Events at eventrsvp@asu.edu.

For more information on the events, go to www.asu.edu/mlk.