Martin Luther King Jr. Day spurred a series of events last week that gave students an opportunity to celebrate diversity and learn more about African-American culture.

About 70 students, faculty and staff joined 15,000 Coloradans in Denver’s Marade, one of the nation’s largest Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations.

During the week an African American culture lecture series was held in the Newman Center for the Performing Arts. It featured Linda Tillery, a music director from Oakland, Calif. She has been singing for 38 years. She started singing rock and roll with Cream, Iron Butterfly, and B. B. King, and eventually progressed to rhythm and blues. Most recently she has focused on preserving African-American music.

Ann Jefferson, who also participated in the week’s events, works at Berkley and has been singing church music for over 30 years. She said that she was “delighted to be in Denver to speak and sing” to honor King’s memory.

Tillery and Jefferson called the series “From Slave Ships to Sanctuaries.” The program gave an overview of the history of African-American music in North America. The pair had the entire audience on their feet dancing and singing on more then one occasion.

A video titled “To Close to Heaven” showed the audience the roots of gospel music and its evolution in American society. The audience was able to hear samplings of various famous and important gospel singers.

The audience also learned of the hardships African American singers endured in order to get recognized for their work, and the influence that gospel music has had on some of America’s most iconic white rock stars such as Elvis Presley.

Tillery and Jefferson were passionate about what they do. They delivered a message of tolerance and equality for everyone.

“We need to learn who each other is” explained Tillery, “then we can share who we are with each other and enjoy each others cultures.”

Tillery and Jefferson ended the week with a concert at the Park Hill Congregational Church.