Featured Events

Martin Luther King Jr Day, on the third Monday in January, honors the American clergyman, activist, Civil Rights Movement leader. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience.

Martin Luther King Day is a relatively new federal holiday and there are few long standing traditions. It is seen as a day to promote equal rights for all Americans, regardless of their background. Some educational establishments mark the day by teaching their pupils or students about the work of Martin Luther King and the struggle against racial segregation and racism. In recent years, federal legislation has encouraged Americans to give some of their time on this day as volunteers in citizen action groups.

Every year, PUMP compiles local events, service projects, conversations, celebrations, and other opportunities to honor MLK Day here in Pittsburgh:

Thursday, January 14th

• Community Conversation: Police Violence with Repair the World Pittsburgh, 1Hood Media, and World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh

Friday, January 15th

• An MLK Celebration: Poetry Unplugged with the August Wilson African American Cultural Center
• Shabbat Dinner: Unpacking and Addressing Racism in Education with Repair the World Pittsburgh

Sunday, January 17th

• Processing Trauma with Art Workshop with Repair the World Pittsburgh
• Street Art Agitprops Workshop with DS Kinsel from Boom Concepts with Repair the World Pittsburgh

Monday, January 18th

• MLK DAY Celebration, Living the Legacy with Kelly Strayhorn Theater
• Family Forum for Equality and Kindness with United Way
  • “How to Talk to Your Children about Race”
  • “Media as a Tool for Social Change”
• Book Drive for Diversity with United Way
• MLK Day Program with 1Hood with Repair the World Pittsburgh Family Service Corps

Wednesday, January 20th

• Action Conversation on Race and Environmental Justice with YWCA Greater Pittsburgh

Friday, January 22nd – Saturday, January 23rd

• 23rd Annual Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit, a multicultural initiative of the Black and White Reunion

MLK Day is an opportunity for individuals and communities to engage in focused educational and service experiences in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King’s life and legacy. But our commitment to racial justice must extend beyond a single day or a singular figure in the civil rights movement. Re-commit yourself to this work by supporting Black-led organizations on the frontlines of advancing racial equity and justice.

Get involved with local Black-led organizations:

• 1Hood Media
• African American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pennsylvania
• African American Leadership Association
• Alliance for Police Accountability
• Amachi Pittsburgh
• Black Girls Equity Alliance (Gwen’s Girls)
• Black Political Empowerment Project (B-PEP)
• Black Tech Nation
• Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh
• Black, Young, & Educated
• Corporate Equity and Inclusion Roundtable (CEIR)
• The Kingsley Association
• My Brother’s Keeper
• Manchester Bidwell Corporation
• New Voices for Reproductive Justice
• Pittsburgh Black Elected Officials Coalition
• POISE Foundation
• Sankofa Fund of Southwest PA
• Sisters PGH
• Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh
• Urban League Young Professionals of Greater Pittsburgh
• YWCA Center for Race & Gender Equity

Check out more information at PUMP:  https://www.pump.org/mlk-day-2021/

The award-winning documentary “Ghosts of Amistad: In the Footsteps of the Rebels,” directed by Tony Buba and produced by Pitt Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History Marcus Rediker, is now available to view online for free on Pitt’s YouTube and Vimeo channels. Rediker teaches in the Department of History, part of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences.

The film chronicles a journey to Sierra Leone in 2013 to visit the home villages of the rebels who captured the slave schooner Amistad in 1839. The filmmakers interviewed elders about local memory of the incident through the oral tradition and searched for the long-lost ruins of Lomboko, the slave trading factory where the cruel transatlantic voyage began. Rediker and Buba relied on the knowledge of villagers, fishermen and truck drivers to recover a lost history from below in the struggle against slavery and to restore the popular memory of the Atlantic slave trade.

“In a time when many Americans and others around the world are eager to learn about racial injustice and its history, it is crucial to have this film about the slave trade—and successful resistance to the slave trade—as a resource,” said Rediker, adding that his primary goal in making the film was “to create the best possible educational tool for the widest possible audience.”

“Ghosts of Amistad” is also available, with subtitles, in French, Italian and Spanish. The film was awarded the John E. O’Connor Film Prize by the American Historical Association as the best historical documentary of 2015.  It has been screened around the world—in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Bologna and throughout the United States.

More information: https://www.ghostsofamistad.com/