Actor Danny Glover to join Lexington for Freedom March

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STAFF REPORT

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As the speaker for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations, Danny Glover will prove that one is never too old to be an activist for tolerance and freedom.

Students on academic holiday and Lexington residents can listen to Glover’s speech, participate in the Freedom March through downtown, and enjoy musical performances by Miss Kentucky Clark Davis for free Jan. 18.

Similar to his famous role as cantankerous peacekeeper Detective Sergeant Roger Murtaugh in “Lethal Weapon,” Glover has championed equity and justice for a number of causes from the time he was a teenager, when he first heard King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, according to a UKNow press release.

The release said Glover protested for more diversity in the culture curriculum as a student at San Francisco State University, helping to found the Black Studies department and America’s first School of Ethnic Studies.

Semblances of similar campus activism have taken root on many college campuses recently, including UK, in response to alleged institutional racism and highly publicized shootings of black citizens in the past few years.

Like Glover’s participation in student protests, more than two dozen African-American and black students at UK, as well as more than 100 faculty and staff members, have met with and participated in a dialogue to improve the academics of the ethnic studies programs at UK, and reinvigorate support for the African American and Africana Studies programs.

The day’s events conclude with a free screening of the Nelson Mandela biopic “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” at the Kentucky Theater at 2:30 p.m.

Preceding events such as the MLK Jr. Day of Service on Jan. 16 aim to give students and Lexington residents plenty of opportunities to remember the sacrifices of the influential civil rights movement, and improve the community for generations hereafter.