Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Programming

Campus Compact of Oregon convenes the MLK Racial Justice Campus Collaborative, a group of 2- and 4- year college and university campuses and community partners seeking to create programming that centers the history and narratives of Portland’s Black community during, and around, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the only national holiday committed to a Black leader.

​Acknowledging that the work of the Civil Rights Movement is far from over, our goal is to support a community-based event for college students and community members that centers ongoing narratives of Black activism, creativity, and resilience. Programming includes community activism panels, teach-in style workshops, and tech-in style service projects. Our Collaborative partners with Black-led nonprofits and community interest groups to develop projects that center the voices and experiences of Black people living in Portland Metro and East County areas.  

Our collective hopes to discover through this event key ways that higher education and students seeking a college education can be engaged in the fight for Black liberation.  We hope Black students will discover mentors and friends who can support them as they navigate historically white institutions.  We hope these conversations will spark deeper understanding for everyone involved on what they can do throughout the year to fight white supremacy and work towards Black liberation.
Our goal is to create a beloved community and 
this will require a qualitative change in our souls 
as well as a quantitative change in our lives.
-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

MLK Day 2020 Highlights

History and Development
​For years, Campus Compact of Oregon observed MLK Day through a day of service organized by a collaborative of Campus Compact of Oregon member campuses. In an effort to align the event more closely with our organizational values, we partnered with the Capstone program at Portland State University to evaluate the event and envision more intentional programming. You can view the final result of this partnership below. Thank you to Professor Kristen Teigen and the PSU students who helped us develop this framework with the guidance of Carmen Brewton Denison. 
Questions? Please contact Carmen Brewton Denison