Dolores Huerta, who worked alongside the late Cesar Chavez to organize boycotts and lobby on behalf of California's migrant workers, will give the keynote address for Duke University's Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17, in Duke Chapel.
The speech is part of a program in the Chapel celebrating King's life. The program, which will include music and dance, is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the Bryan Center Parking Garage (see map at map.duke.edu/parking.php?pid=P001). A live webcast and recording of the event will appear online at http://www.chapel.duke.edu/media.html (click on"Watch Live").
"Dolores Huerta and Dr. King both recognized the scourge of social and economic inequalities and used the power of non-violent protest to heighten awareness and stimulate change," said Ben Reese, one of the King committee co-chairs and Duke's vice president for institutional equity.
Huerta is the co-founder, with Chavez, of the United Farm Workers. Together, they also helped start the Farm Workers Credit Union, the first credit union for farm workers; the National Farm Workers Service Center, which provides affordable housing; and the Robert F. Kennedy Medical Plan, which provided medical coverage to union members. Kennedy acknowledged Huerta's help in winning the 1968 California Democratic Presidential Primary moments before his assassination.
Today, she is president of the board of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, which helps teach poor working people how to organize.
Huerta may be best known for helping direct the five-year-long national grape boycott of the late 1960s, which protested mistreatment of farm workers. As a vocal advocate for equal rights, Huerta has been assaulted by police and arrested 22 times for union activities. Like King, she embraced non-violence as a philosophy and survival skill.
"At a time when our nation faces extraordinary challenges in the areas of health care and workers' rights, as the world wonders how to deal with massive migrations across borders and questions about our food supply and a safe environment, Duke is privileged and honored to have a leader with the wisdom and experience of Dolores Huerta to help us think about how, in the best tradition of Martin Luther King, we can best come together today, right now, to offer real solutions for the future," said human rights activist and playwright Ariel Dorfman, a Duke professor of literature and Latin American studies who will introduce Huerta's keynote address.
The theme for this year's commemoration events is "Where Do We Go From Here? Overcoming Inequity and Building Community."
Learn more about this year's commemoration, including an updated listing of events, at mlk.duke.edu.