Speeches, march and more planned for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Inland Northwest residents will commemorate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. during events this week and next. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Monday.

Marilyn Schuler, former executive director of the Idaho Human Rights Commission, will speak each day this week at every elementary school in Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls. Schuler also will speak at 9:30 a.m. Friday to area fifth-graders at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Children’s Program at the North Idaho College Shuler Auditorium in Coeur d’Alene.

Mike Tate, vice president for equity and diversity at Washington State University, will give the keynote address at a Remembrance Program at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Holy Temple Church of God in Christ, 806 W. Indiana Ave. in Spokane.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in Spokane kick off at 10 a.m. Monday with a brief program in the atrium of the INB Performing Arts Center on Spokane Falls Boulevard.

Immediately after the program, the annual Unity March will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the Michael Anderson statue in the breezeway between the performing arts center and the Convention Center. This year’s theme is “Rekindle the Light in the Dream.”

The march will end at River Park Square, where speakers will include Rodolfo Arévalo, president of Eastern Washington University, and the Rev. Happy Watkins will deliver King’s “I Had a Dream” speech. A resource fair at River Park Square will follow the march from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday.

The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations’ annual gala will be at the Highlands Day Spa (the old Highlands golf club), 4365 E. Inverness Drive in Post Falls, from 5 to 9 p.m. Monday. Tickets may be purchased at the door for $25.