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Saturday, January 16, 2027 · Doors 9:00 AM
Bonne Sante Wellness Center, Baton Rouge

The legacy

From Morehouse to Baton Rouge

Dr. King’s life was shaped in classrooms, and Baton Rouge helped shape the movement he led. Two threads, one legacy, and a morning that carries both forward.

  • Dr. King’s education
  • Baton Rouge

  1. Atlanta, Georgia

    1944: A freshman at fifteen

    Martin Luther King Jr. enters Morehouse College at 15, admitted early through a wartime program for promising high school students.

  2. Atlanta, Georgia

    1947: The purpose of education

    Writing in the Morehouse student newspaper, he argues that education must build both the mind and the character of the person who receives it.

    Intelligence plus character
    that is the goal of true education.

    Martin Luther King Jr., “The Purpose of Education,” The Maroon Tiger, 1947

    Like Dr. King, Dr. Glaude is a graduate of Morehouse College.

    Meet the keynote

  3. Baton Rouge, Louisiana

    1953: The city that went first

    Rev. T. J. Jemison leads the Baton Rouge bus boycott, the first mass bus boycott of the civil rights era. Its volunteer free-ride network becomes a blueprint for Montgomery two years later.

  4. Boston, Massachusetts

    1955: Dr. King

    He completes his Ph.D. in systematic theology at Boston University. Six months later, the Montgomery bus boycott begins and the nation learns his name.

  5. Baton Rouge, Louisiana

    1960: Students take a seat

    Southern University students sit in at downtown lunch counters. Their case, Garner v. Louisiana, reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturns their convictions in 1961.

  6. Baton Rouge, Louisiana

    2027: A legacy of opportunity

    Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC) and United Christian Faith Ministries (UCFM) bring the community together to fund college scholarships, awarded on stage to students pursuing higher education at BRCC and other colleges.

    Students: apply for a scholarship

    Applications are due .

    Scholarship recipients are recognized on stage at the breakfast.

In photographs

In his time

Dr. King’s years in the movement, and the Baton Rouge history that runs beside them, in photographs from public archives.

Act I

Education and faith

A scholar in the pulpit and a preacher on the campus.

Black and white photo of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. standing at a carved wooden podium with microphones on the stage of Hill Auditorium, with organ pipes and an ornate arch behind him and a man in a suit seated at right.

Ann Arbor, Michigan,

Dr. King at the podium on the stage of Hill Auditorium at the University of Michigan.

Photo: University of Michigan Media Resources Center. Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan (HS2295). © Regents of the University of Michigan, CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at a wooden pulpit beside a microphone, his left arm raised high as he speaks.

Washington Temple Church,

Dr. King raises his arm as he speaks at a freedom rally.

Photo: O. Fernandez, New York World-Telegram & Sun. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, NYWT&S Collection, LC-USZ62-111157.

Act II

The movement

From the White House to Birmingham, the National Mall and the signing of the Civil Rights Act.

Eight men in dark suits stand in a row in a White House office with flags behind them. Dr. King, second from left, holds papers, and President Eisenhower stands at center.

The White House,

Dr. King, second from left, meets President Dwight D. Eisenhower with Lester B. Granger, A. Philip Randolph and Roy Wilkins.

Warren K. Leffler, photographer. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Collection, LC-DIG-ppmsca-78007.

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth speaks into a microphone at a press table while Dr. King, center, rests his chin on his hand and Rev. Ralph Abernathy listens, in front of a floral curtain.

Birmingham, Alabama,

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Dr. King and Rev. Ralph Abernathy face the press during the Birmingham Campaign.

Marion S. Trikosko, photographer. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Collection, LC-DIG-ppmsca-72947.

Civil rights leaders in suits march through a dense crowd holding signs that demand jobs, voting rights and effective civil rights laws, with Dr. King among them and press photographers on a truck at left.

Washington, D.C.,

Dr. King marches among civil rights leaders and crowds carrying signs at the March on Washington.

Warren K. Leffler, photographer. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Collection, LC-DIG-ppmsca-04297.

Black and white photograph of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaking into a cluster of microphones, a March on Washington button on his lapel, with tall stone columns behind him and a park ranger in a campaign hat in the right foreground.

Washington, D.C.,

Dr. King speaks at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Photo by Rowland Scherman, U.S. Information Agency. National Archives and Records Administration (NAID 542068).

A row of civil rights leaders in suits and march buttons stands with President Kennedy in the Oval Office. Dr. King is fifth from left, and Kennedy stands right of center.

The Oval Office, The White House,

After the march, Dr. King and the march leaders meet President John F. Kennedy.

Warren K. Leffler, photographer. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Collection, LC-DIG-ds-04413.

Black and white photograph of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leaning over a lectern with both hands on its edge, speaking, seen from a low angle against a draped wall with a lit sconce at left.

U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.,

Dr. King speaks at a press conference about the Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Marion S. Trikosko, photographer. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Collection, LC-DIG-ppmsca-41615.

Black and white photograph in the White House East Room: President Lyndon B. Johnson, seated at a desk with microphones and a holder of pens, hands a pen to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who stands among a crowd of men in suits before curtains, flags and the presidential seal.

East Room, The White House,

At the signing of the Civil Rights Act, President Lyndon B. Johnson hands Dr. King a signing pen.

LBJ Library photo by Cecil Stoughton.

Act III

Baton Rouge

The city that went first in 1953, the students who took a seat in 1960, and the education that carries it forward.

Black and white photograph of the castle-like Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge, with twin crenellated towers, a tall arched window over the main door, and a long staircase rising up a grassy terrace.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana,

The west front of the Old State Capitol, photographed for the Historic American Buildings Survey.

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HABS LA,17-BATRO,6-1 (photograph by David J. Kaminsky, 1978).

Color photograph of the tall Art Deco tower of the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge under billowing clouds, seen across a green lawn with a white memorial statue in front of the entrance.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana,

The Louisiana State Capitol, completed in 1931.

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Carol M. Highsmith [LC-DIG-highsm-67732].

Printed first page of the Supreme Court decision Garner v. Louisiana in U.S. Reports, showing the case title, the argued and decided dates of October and December 1961, the syllabus about peaceful lunch counter sit-ins, and the word Reversed.

Supreme Court of the United States,

In Garner v. Louisiana, the Court reversed the convictions of Baton Rouge sit-in demonstrators, among them Southern University students, arrested in 1960.

Garner v. Louisiana, 368 U.S. 157 (1961). United States Reports, Library of Congress Law Library.

Black and white photo of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in an academic gown with a satin hood, white bands and a medallion, holding a cylindrical diploma case and standing on a patterned carpet.

Concertgebouw, Amsterdam,

Dr. King, wearing the hood of an honorary doctorate in the social sciences from the Vrije Universiteit, holds his diploma.

Photo: Anefo (photographer unknown). Nationaal Archief, CC0 (2.24.01.05, inv. 918-3380).

A Legacy of Opportunity

Black and white portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. facing the camera with a slight smile, his right hand raised beside his head, wearing a dark suit and tie, with a curtain and a candle sconce behind him.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dick DeMarsico, photographer. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, NYWT&S Collection, LC-USZ62-126559.

This morning, the doors open for four more students

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Why we gather

BRCC and UCFM are joining in a shared belief: education transforms lives, opportunity strengthens communities, and service inspires change.

The celebration builds on UCFM’s longstanding tradition of honoring Dr. King through social justice, community service, and student scholarships, and on BRCC’s commitment to educational access, workforce development, and economic opportunity.

January 16, 2027

Take your place in the story.

Baton Rouge gathers again to help fund the next generation of scholars.

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