​January 13, 2017—Newark, OH — Central Ohio Technical College (COTC) and The Ohio State University at Newark will hold its 8th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration on Thursday, January 19, 2017 at 6:00 p.m. Guest speaker, The Reverend Mario R. Williams, will present "A Post Racial Culture Dialogue." The event will be held in the John Gilbert Reese Center's Alford Performing Arts Hall located at 1209 University Drive, Newark campus.
Can racism end in our lifetime? This program is a combination of lecture and dialogue to engage the audience in discussion about intersections of race, color and culture. We are intellectually capable of extraordinary things and have made extraordinary accomplishments in the last two hundred years. We should ask ourselves, why are we a society still perpetuating the thoughts and practices of hate. Racism can be abolished through honest conversations, mutual respect and continued dialogue.
Williams is a native of Chicago, Illinois. He answered the call to the ministry while attending Denison University in Granville, OH and preached his first sermon at the age of 20 at the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Newark, OH. In the year 2000, he was conferred with the Master of Theology (Th.M.) degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. He was ordained in December 2008 by the Eastern Union Missionary Baptist Association of the Ohio Baptist General Convention.
He currently serves as Assistant to the Pastor and Director of Christian Education for Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Newark, Ohio and is the Executive Administrator of the National Baptist Convention Housing and Economic Development Commission as well as the Director for Academic Affairs for Eastern Union Christian College (formerly Eastern Union Bible College). Williams currently resides in Newark, Ohio with his wife Jacquelyn and their two daughters, Janet and Keylani.
The event is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs at COTC and Ohio State Newark. Questions may be directed to Vorley Taylor, program director at taylor.1051@osu.edu or 740.366.9443. Light refreshments will be available.