Honoring Martin Luther King Jr. — part 1 of 5

In Memory of Rosa Parks, The Mother of Modern Civil Rights Movement (Photo courtesy of Martin Luther King Resources at Chico High School Library, Chico, Calif.)

In commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, UNMC Today will feature a series of photos and quotations from the civil rights leader. In today’s excerpt, King addresses conscience.

“On some positions, Cowardice asks the question ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ And Vanity comes along and asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But Conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Plan to attend
The 2006 Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemoration, sponsored by UNMC and The Nebraska Medical Center, will be Monday, Jan. 16, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Storz Pavilion on the lower level of Clarkson Tower. The program is free and open to the public.

Robert Jensen, Ph.D., associate professor, School of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin, will discuss the unseen and unspoken privileges that are accorded simply because one has white skin. Caucasian, Dr. Jensen is the author of “The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege” – a unique perspective on contemporary racial relations in America. For more information, contact Walter Brooks at 559-5768 or e-mail wbrooks@unmc.edu.