College professor to be keynote speaker

Workshops and the evening program are free.

WARREN — Lenworth Gunther, professor of history and director of the Africana Center at Essex County (N.J.) College, will deliver the keynote address at the 13th annual Martin Luther King Day Celebration.

He is the founder and president of Edmedia Associates, an educational and motivational consulting company that specializes in communications and diversity issues.

The event, sponsored by the Trumbull County Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Team, will be at 7 p.m. Jan 16 at W.D. Packard Music Hall.

The Dream Team's mission is to generate a united community effort to remember, celebrate and inspire action in keeping Dr. King's dream alive.

Gunther's address will be part of an evening program that will also include the Trumbull County Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance Community Choir and an honor guard from the 910th Airlift Wing in Vienna. The program will culminate a day of activities.

The day will begin with a breakfast at 7:30 a.m. in the Warren G. Harding High School cafeteria. The breakfast speaker is the Rev. Kenneth Paramore, pastor of United Baptist Church in Akron and The Christian Revival and Discipleship Center in Youngstown.

Cost for the breakfast, catered by Saratoga Restaurant, is $15 per person.

Reservations can be made by calling (330) 841-2316, Ext. 208. Reservation deadline is Thursday.

Workshops and programs for children, young adults and adults, will begin at 10:30 a.m. at Harding. Gunther will present a diversity workshop during this segment, and lunch will be provided for participants. Workshops and the evening program are free.

Gunther has earned four degrees from Columbia University and helped design the school's first black history course.

Internationally Gunther is a highly sought-after speaker and consultant because of his ability to mix realism and idealism. He has provided diversity training for a number of agencies including the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Justice, the New York and New Jersey Port Authority police departments, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Agency.

Biography

Of Jamaican roots, Gunther grew up and lived 35 years in New York City's community of Harlem before moving to New Jersey. A graduate of New York's public schools, he later became a Woodrow Wilson and Ford Foundation Doctoral Fellow. His degrees from Columbia are a bachelor of arts, master of arts, master of philosophy, and a doctorate in American history with specialties in black, West African and Russian studies.

Gunther's professional journey has taken him from the classroom, community, corporation and civic arena to the media. In 1968, two years after teaching his first high school students, he helped prepare Columbia University's first black history course. Since 1971, Gunther has taught African, Caribbean and black studies and public speaking at a number of schools.

His writings include articles on black life and such books as The New Jersey African American History Curriculum Guide for High School. He served in the early 1980s on the East Orange, N.J., school board and founded a college relief fund for the need. He has been a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity since 1968.