Virtual Event! MLK Streets: More Than a Name
January 18 2021 | 1:00pm to January 19 2021 | 2:55pm
Across America, over 900 streets bear the name of Martin Luther King, Jr. For MLK Day 2021, the Black Historic Sites Committee and the Detroit Historical Society are taking an in-depth look into how race and geography have played a role in naming streets after King and whether the streets have lived up to his legacy and dreams.
Join us for a virtual panel discussion and special viewing of the 15-minute film short King Blvd., which will set the set stage for the discussion.
Our ZOOM event panel features:
∙ Earl Hardy, writer and producer of King Blvd. In his travels, Hardy noticed that MLK Streets were often located in blighted neighborhoods and wanted to know why and what could be done to revitalize those areas. This investigation led the Detroit native to write and produce King Blvd.
∙ Dr. Derek Alderman, cultural geographer and professor at the University of Tennessee. He has studied and written about streets named after MLK since the early 1990s. Dr. Alderman’s specialties include race, public memory, symbolic landscapes, heritage tourism and critical place-name study.
∙ Jamon Jordan, local historian, educator and founder of The Black Scroll Network, History & Tours. He established the tour company after twenty years as a public school teacher who observed the scarcity of African American history in school curriculums and decided to do something about it.
