Published Monday, January 9, 2023

Renton Technical College will commemorate Martin Luther King Day with two days of programming.

Letter from Birmingham Jail: A 60-Year Introspection
Keynote Address by King County Judge Nicole Gaines Phelps
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
1–2 p.m.
RTC Cafeteria, I Building

Judge Phelps joined the King County Superior Court bench in January 2017 as the first African-American woman to win a contested election for an open Superior Court seat.

She is co-chair and founding member of the King County Superior Court’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee and a member of the Uniform Family Court, Public Health, and Budget Committee. She serves as a member of the Superior Court Judges Association (SCJA) Ethics Committee and is the SCJA representative to the Department of Retirement Systems (DRS) Advisory Committee. She is a proud Silver Star Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. 

Judge Phelps also dedicates time by serving on the Pike Market Senior Center and Food Bank Board of Directors and is a highly regarded keynote speaker on various legal topics, including eliminating barriers to the justice system.  

Judge Phelps received her undergraduate degree from Butler University and studied at the University of London Law Consortium before completing her law degree at the Indiana School of Law-Bloomington (now known as Mauer School of Law).

King in the Wilderness, Film Screening & Discussion
Thursday, January 19, 2023
1–2:30 p.m.
Blencoe Auditorium, C 101

King in the Wilderness chronicles the final chapters of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, revealing a conflicted leader who faced an onslaught of criticism from both sides of the political spectrum. While the Black Power movement saw his nonviolence as weakness, and President Lyndon B. Johnson saw his anti-Vietnam War speeches as irresponsible, Dr. King’s unyielding belief in peaceful protest became a testing point for a nation on the brink of chaos. Dr. King’s leadership during the bus boycotts, the sit-ins and the historic Selma to Montgomery marches is now legendary, but much of what happened afterward – during the last three years of his life – is rarely discussed. It’s a time when Dr. King said his dream “turned into a nightmare.” Drawing on conversations with those who knew Dr. King well, including many fellow members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King in the Wilderness reveals stirring new perspectives on Dr. King’s character, his radical doctrine of nonviolence and his internal philosophical struggles before his assassination in 1968. The documentary also features archival footage, behind-the-scenes video of Dr. King’s private moments, intimate archival photographs, and phone conversations recorded by President Johnson, who was both an ally and adversary in King’s fight for civil rights.

All Programs will also be accessible virtually via Zoom
Meeting ID: 867 5737 9780
Passcode: 544142

For more information, contact the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at dei@rtc.edu or 425-235-6391.