After 66 years, the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will again fill Memorial Hall on the Bethel College campus.
On Jan. 21, 1960, King spoke to a full auditorium on “The Future of Integration.”
On Jan. 18, 2010, the 50th anniversary of the first event, the audience in a packed Krehbiel Auditorium in Luyken Fine Arts Center listened to the only known recording of that speech.
An excerpt has been played in Mem Hall, but never the entire address.
The listening event is part of “Community, Commemoration and Celebration,” a collaboration between Bethel College and Hesston College, with Newton Community for Racial Justice and the Newton Public Library, to celebrate the 2026 King holiday, Jan. 18-19.
On Jan. 18 at 3 p.m. in Hesston Mennonite Church (309 S. Main St.), Bethel and Hesston choirs, the Central Kansas Master Chorale and Bethel alumna Roz McCommon, Bellevue, Wash., and her band will perform.
On Jan. 19, there is a prayer breakfast with local clergy in Bontrager Student Center on the Hesston College campus (301 S. Main St.) at 8 a.m.
Newton Community for Racial Justice is sponsoring an escape room that day in the Newton Public Library (223 E. 7th St.), 10 a.m.-3 p.m., with clues based on history related to Dr. King’s life and work.
The listening event for King’s 1960 speech will take place at 6 p.m. in Memorial Hall (300 E. 27th St., North Newton).
At 7 p.m. in Mem Hall, many of the same musicians from Sunday’s program, along with the Bethel orchestra, will join in A Better World: The Journey of MLK, a project of McCommon’s.
Since more details will become available closer to the dates, be sure to keep checking bethelks.edu/MLK for updates.
All events are free and open to the public.
