By Greg Forester & Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writers
The Princeton area will commemorate the life and achievements of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil rights leader, with a variety of events Monday.
Richardson Auditorium in Princeton University’s Alexander Hall will be the site of the university’s annual King Day celebration, which starts at 1 p.m. and is free and open to the general public.
This is the first King Day after the presidential election of 2008, which saw America elect its first president of African-American heritage. With that historic event in mind, the theme of the university King Day celebration is a question of which issues would the late Dr. King want President-elect Barack Obama to be most concerned about.
A large crowd is expected for the event, said Emily Aronson, a university spokeswoman.
Hugh Price, a visiting professor of public and international affairs, will deliver the keynote address.
Mr. Price is the former head of the National Urban League and has dedicated his life to civil rights issues and providing equal opportunities regardless of race. He has served as a vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation, which works with at-risk youth, and he served as a member of the New York Times editorial board.
Previous keynote speakers include José Huizar, a Princeton graduate alumnus and the first Latino immigrant member of the Los Angeles City Council, Princeton scholar Daphne Brooks, who studied music’s central role in the struggle of African-Americans from slavery to Hurricane Katrina, and the Rev. Charles G. Adams, a pastor and activist.
The event reaches beyond the Princeton University campus with highlights including the presentation of awards winners of essay, poster and video contests with participants coming from area schools.
Each contest involved students from grades four through 12 taking the role of a cabinet member providing advice to the new president on issues that would be of high interest to Dr. King.
Students from Princeton Regional Schools took part in the contest.
Other Princeton events include a 7 p.m. interfaith service organized by the Princeton Clergy Association at the Mt. Pisgah AME Church at 170 Witherspoon St.
Religious leaders from the Jewish, Protestant and Catholic faiths will participate in the service.
The Diocese of Trenton, an organization that includes Catholic churches in the greater Princeton area, will participate in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service on Monday
The service day brings volunteers and donated foods from Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean counties as the diocese participates in the service day in what church officials said is a growing national tradition.
;From 8 a.m. to noon at the Diocesan Pastoral Center at 701 Lawrenceville Road in Lawrence Township, workers will collect and sort hygiene and toiletry kits, school supplies and children’s books. Volunteers also will help prepare meals and put together bag lunches for delivery to the Mount Carmel Guild, Anchor House, the Mercer County Catholic Youth Organization, the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen and other local organizations.
For more information, contact the diocesan Communications Officer Rayanne Bennett at 609-406-7600, ext. 5569.
West Windsor Township will hold its second annual celebration for the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. at 2 p.m. Monday in the township library at 333 North Post Road.
The keynote speaker will be the Rev. Cornell Edmonds, the stated clerk for the Presbytery of New York City. The Rev. Edmonds is a frequent speaker on Dr. King and former general counsel for the New York Metropolitan Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolence.
We hope to use this opportunity to create a dialogue on the role of civic engagement in our community advocated by Dr. King in his quest to achieve a ‘beloved community’ in his lifetime and beyond,” Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said in a statement.
The event also will recognize the inauguration of the country’s first black president the next day, he said.
The event is held by the township Human Relations Council and the West Windsor Plainsboro African-American Parent Support Group.
The forum will focus on how we can embrace hope, faith and courage with transformative action to develop strategies to attack the chaos in our communities and nation due to economic instability and great unrest around the world,” Hassan Syed, chairman of the Human Relations Council for West Windsor Township, said in a statement.
We hope to use this conversation as an avenue to begin to develop an action plan on a local level, which can be used to help create a ‘beloved community’ in a respectful and inclusive fashion.”
A reception and multimedia display on the life and legacy of Dr. King, prepared by the library, will follow the event.
In Montgomery Township, residents are asked to honor the holiday by volunteering their time at nursing homes, food banks, child care centers, shelters or hospitals.
”Montgomery has a proud tradition of volunteerism and a deep well of talent,” Mayor Louise Wilson said in a statement. “Family comes first, but from there, almost all of us can reach out and give to others. The Day of Service is a time to connect and, even in a small way, to make a difference.”
The Somerset County United Way Volunteer Center is a good source of short-term volunteer opportunities, township spokeswoman Tammy Garaffa said. To view its online listings, visit their Web site at http://volunteer.united-e-way.org/somerset/volunteer.

