UA Announces Full Schedule of ‘Realizing the Dream’ Events

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — For the 25^th consecutive year, The University of Alabama and its Realizing the Dream partners present a series of events around the holiday that honors the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The events follow:

• Legacy Awards Banquet. At 6:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 17, former national and foreign news correspondent John Cochran, a UA graduate, will speak at a banquet in Foster Auditorium. The honorees, recognized for a variety of achievements in the spirit of Dr. King, are Melanie Gotz, a UA senior, who will receive the Horizon Award; Cleophus Thomas Jr., an Anniston attorney who will accept the Call to Conscience Award; and Dr. Roger Sayers, former UA president, who will be presented the Mountaintop Award. Dr. E. Culpepper Clark, a noted historian and former UA faculty member and administrator, will be the master of ceremonies.

• Realizing the Dream Program. At 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 19, the multi-talented John Legend, who has been honored with a string of artistic and humanitarian awards, is the featured speaker in the Moody Music Concert Hall. The Ohio native has won more than a dozen major awards, including nine Grammys. His humanitarian activities include programs to help Hurricane Katrina victims, create economic and educational opportunities for black males, and to help persons living with HIV/AIDS lead normal lives. His most recent album, “Love in the Future,” was released in September 2013.

• SCLC Unity Day Celebration. Unity Day activities will occur Monday, Jan. 20. Sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, activities begin at 7 a.m. in the Hay College Center dining hall at Stillman College. The Unity Day March begins at noon at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School and proceeds to the Tuscaloosa City Hall on University Boulevard.

Legend is another in a long line of distinguished guests who have been part of the Realizing the Dream program. Tuscaloosa’s recognition of King began in 1990 with a performance by actor James Earl Jones. Since then such notables as Sidney Poitier, Harry Belefonte, Maya Angelou, Julian Bond, Cecily Tyson, Roberta Flack and Della Reese have performed. Last year’s concert by Take Six and the Aeolians played to a sold-out crowd and was something of a homecoming for the group, which got its start while studying at Oakwood University in Huntsville.

The keynote speaker for the Legacy Banquet, John Cochran, is a Montgomery native and UA graduate. The three-time Emmy Award winner, who grew up during the height of the civil rights movement, said he could not imagine how his life would have turned out had not the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. become the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in his hometown.

Cochran, who was attending Sidney Lanier High School at the time, said he often reflects on these days and says that’s when he fell in love with journalism. “I got hooked on news,” Cochran said. After attending Alabama and majoring in broadcast journalism, he said he “wanted to be where history was being made.”

The partners in the Realizing the Dream events, in addition to UA, are Shelton State Community College, Stillman College and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.