The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute and the Black Community Services Center (BCSC) have sponsored a full schedule of events throughout this week in recognition of the famous civil rights leader.

Yesterday’s holiday commemorates the birthday of the 1960’s African-American activist, civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize-winner who helped end racial segregation in America through non-violent civil disobedience.

The series kicked off on Jan. 15 with the Institute’s annual celebration. This year’s theme, “Global Peace and Social Justice,” featured the presentation of a clip from the recent film “Passages of Martin Luther King.” Events continued on Jan. 17, when the Stanford Aurora Forum presented an approximately two hour-long discussion in Kresge Auditorium with Clarence B. Jones, a former counsel and draft speechwriter for King.

Mark Gonnerman, Director of the Aurora Forum, moderated the discussion, as well as the question-and-answer session that followed. According to Gonnerman, the event attracted about 500 people from campus and the surrounding community.

“Clarence is a gifted public speaker, as one would expect from someone who helped draft speeches for Dr. King,” Gonnerman wrote in an email to The Daily, “and, through his narratives that evening, he was able to make past events — the 1963 Birmingham Campaign and March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, for example — present and relevant to our lives today.”

Yesterday, supporters and activists commemorated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with two major events — an afternoon “teach-in” at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco and a King Trivia Quiz and interactive art creation at the San Mateo Caltrain Station. Both the “teach-in,” entitled “Martin Luther King’s Legacy in His Own Words: His Messages to Us Today” and the trivia quiz in San Mateo culminated with the 23rd annual Freedom Train to San Francisco.

Remaining events include a traditional soul-food lunch at Tresidder Oak Room tomorrow and a conversation with Julian Bond — current chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) — on Thursday. The conversation will be held in McCaw Hall in the Arrillaga Alumni Center from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

The organizers hope that those involved in the Martin Luther King, Jr. events this week will remember the life of King and what he worked to accomplish.

“By studying the civil rights movement and Dr. King’s crucial leadership role in the struggle, one has an opportunity to learn about effective mechanisms and strategies for creating social change,” Gonnerman said. “Through brilliant oratory and political savvy Dr. King was able to stir the conscience of our nation, but change occurred because countless people began to organize and act out against segregation, economic injustice and the effects of an immoral foreign war.”