Events will honor Martin Luther King Jr.

People close to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy will take part in celebrations of his birthday in and near Stanislaus County.

The slain civil rights leader would have turned 85 on Jan. 15, and the national holiday in his honor is Jan. 19 this year. The events are spread over several weeks. Among them:

Sunday, Sonora: Stanford University history professor Clayborne Carson, the official King archivist, will speak at 2 p.m. in the Sonora High School auditorium, 430 N. Washington St. The free event will be followed by a reception in the school cafeteria.

Coretta Scott King chose Carson to edit and publish her late husband’s papers. Carson was a civil rights and anti-war activist as a young man and has written books and a musical play about the struggle for racial equality.

Carson will speak on income inequality. King, in the latter part of his life, added this cause to the work he had done on voting and other rights.

This will be the 20th annual event put on by the Motherlode Martin Luther King Jr. Committee. More information is at www.mlmartinlutherkingjr.org or from Pat Cervelli at (209) 928-3494.

Jan. 19, Modesto: Christian Love Baptist Church will present its 29th annual King commemoration at 10 a.m. Program details were not available Monday. The church is at 202 H St.

Feb. 7, Modesto: Civil rights leader Julian Bond will be the keynote speaker at the 29th annual commemoration at Modesto Junior College.

Bond co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960 and later served as chairman of the NAACP and president of the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was elected in 1965 to the Georgia House of Representatives but denied a seat by legislators until the U.S. Supreme Court intervened.

Doors for the free event will open at 6 p.m. at the Performing Arts and Media Center Auditorium on the east campus, 435 College Ave. The program will start at 7 p.m.

A free public reception for Bond will be from 5 to 6 p.m. at the King-Kennedy Memorial Center, 601 S. Martin Luther King Drive.

Supporters can help with the cost by sending checks payable to Modesto Peace/Life Center-MLK and mailing them to Jim Costello, 1849 Richard Way, Ceres 95307-4504. More information is available from Costello at jcostello@igc.org or (209) 402-9191, or from Dan Onorato at onoratod@att.net or (209) 526-5436.

The center’s co-sponsors to date include MJC; the Modesto Parks, Recreation and Neighborhoods Department; California State University, Stanislaus; the West Modesto King-Kennedy Neighborhood Collaborative; and College Avenue Congregational Church.

Coming soon: “Selma,” a film about a 1965 march led by King in Alabama, will open nationwide Friday. The theaters include Brenden and Regal in Modesto, Regal in Turlock, Galaxy in Riverbank and Regal in Sonora. The film stars David Oyelowo (“Interstellar”) as King, and the cast includes Martin Sheen, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tim Roth and Oprah Winfrey.

This story was originally published January 5, 2015 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Events will honor Martin Luther King Jr.."