Here’s a good option for Brooklynites
who can’t make it to DC but want to mark this historic presidential
inauguration in a meaningful way.

WNYC is presenting a free panel discussion
on Sunday at The Brooklyn Museum, which will feature an investigation of the
civil rights journey from King’s protests to Obama’s election. For more details go to wnyc.org

The timing was
uncanny. On August 28, 2008, Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party’s
nomination for President on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.’s landmark “I Have a Dream” speech. 
Now, the annual Martin Luther King holiday falls on the eve of Obama’s
historic inauguration as the first African American President of the United States.

To mark this momentous occasion, WNYC will present its third annual MLK
event, “A JOURNEY OF HOPE: From Protest
to Presidency,” an afternoon of conversation, music and poetry
celebrating the vision and legacy of Dr. King and its most powerful
manifestation five decades later.

WNYC’s Peabody Award-winning hosts Brian Lehrer (The Brian Lehrer Show) and Adaora Udoji (The
Takeaway with John Hockenberry and Adaora Udoji) will lead a
discussion with an esteemed roundtable of academics, journalists and public
policy advocates about the evolution of American political thought and tactics
from King to Obama.

The conversation will explore three
primary areas:

WHAT ARE
THE NEW FRONTIERS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT?

Are we post-racial? If so, where does the struggle
against racism fit within a “postracial” society?  Has racial
equality been supplanted by gay rights, religious tolerance (particularly
Islam), immigrant rights at the top of the new civil rights agenda? What
exactly happened with Proposition 8?

TOOLS AND TACTICS OF CHANGE From MLK
to Obama

How did MLK use protest, and why is it no longer as effective? How has
the role of the Black church changed within advocacy and protest movements?
What is the new call to service?

A
CHANGING OF THE GUARD? Origins and Heirs of the Civil Rights Movement

What is the new role for the old guard of Black
leadership now that a Black leader will occupy the highest office in the land?
What is owed to those who brought us to this moment, and are they getting their
due? What do young activists owe the older generation?