Monday morning at the Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference center the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. scholarship breakfast was hosted featuring keynote speaker Andrew Young.
Sponsors for the event included the Office of Inclusion and Diversity, the Office of University Outreach and the East Alabama chapter of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators.
The theme for this year's breakfast was "Bridging the Gap".
Speaker for the event, civil rights activist Young is a former U.S. congressman, Ambassador to the United Nations and Mayor of Atlanta. He was a close friend
Young told anecdotes of growing up in New Orleans amidst segregation and WWII. He said it was then that his father taught him two very important lessons including to never seek violence and to never lose one’s temper.
Young recounted various instances of his career and personal life in which those ideas persisted and how they sought to punctuate a broader mission regarding the importance of inclusion and diversity.
Following the speech, the MLK Community Service Award and respective scholarship awards were given and Ambassador Young posed for pictures with guests outside of the conference room.
“[The breakfast] is an opportunity for the community to honor the work and the life and the legacy of Dr. King,” said Associate Provost and Vice President for the Office of Inclusion and Diversity Taffye Benson Clayton.
This year marked Clayton's first year hosting the event.
“It’s also an opportunity for us to advance what we know was one of his most important areas of focus, education," Clayton said. "[The breakfast] is a combination of a celebration of his work and accomplishment as well as a celebration for young people who are continuing to pursue education.”
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