LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- Flip Schulke, perhaps best known for his ten-year photochronicle of his good friend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will highlight Rider University's observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and kick off a plethora of events throughout February in celebration of Black History Month.

"African Pride: 'One Aim, One God, One Destiny'" is the theme for this year's program, which includes several distinguished speakers, discussion and workshops, films, performing arts productions, and social events intended to remember the civil rights activist of the 1950s and 1960s and to promote awareness of African-American history and culture on campus.

The program officially begins with Schulke's Martin Luther King Jr. Day presentation -- held later than the nationally observed date to accommodate students' arrival on campus for the spring term -- on Thursday, February 4, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Student Center Theater on the University's Lawrenceville campus.

A self-taught photographer, Schulke began his career covering the Minnesota presidential campaign stops of Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. At age 22, he sold his first picture to Life magazine, and began his travels around the world to cover hundreds of subjects, including the Apollo astronauts, Fidel Castro, John F. Kennedy, and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

However, his most noteworthy accomplishment began in 1958, when he met and befriended Dr. King while on assignment for Ebony. Since then, he has accumulated more than 11,000 photographs of Dr. King and the civil rights movement, the largest personal collection in the world. Being a close friend of the civil rights leader allowed Schulke to take pictures at many private occasions, and he was the one press representative called upon by Dr. King's widow, Coretta King, to document the family's grief and the country's loss after her husband's assassination.

Schulke is the author of Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Documentary, Montgomery to Memphis (1976), King Remembered (1986), and the recent He Had a Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement (1995), all published by W.W. Norton.

* Another major black history event planned will be a workshop on author Zora Neale Hurston, scheduled for Tuesday, February 23, at 7 p.m. in the Multicultural Center, located on the second floor of the Student Center. The program is being conducted by Dr. Pearlie Peters, associate professor of English at Rider, who recently published a book entitled The Assertive Woman in Zora Neale Hurston's Fiction, Folklore, and Drama.

Hurston is renowned for her portrayal of assertive women in her works. She articulated an assertive spirit and voice that had a profound influence on the development of her professional reputation and on the course of African-American literature, folklore, and culture of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.

A variety of other noteworthy programs open to the public will also be offered on Rider's Lawrenceville campus. They include:

• St. Benedict's Gospel Choir will perform on Sunday, February 7, during the 7 p.m. Catholic Mass in Rider's Gill Memorial Chapel. The choir is comprised of students in grades 7 through 12 with diverse ethnicity, including African-American, Latin American, Spanish, and Portuguese.

• Dr. Adrian McFarlane, former professor of philosophy at Rider and current chair of the philosophy department at Hartwick College, will head a discussion panel consisting of Shara McCallum, graduate assistant at Hartwick, and Dr. Roderick McDonald, professor of history at Rider, on Thursday, February 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Student Center Fireside Lounge. The discussion will focus on African-American and Caribbean traditions.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Day presentation and other Black History Month programs are free and open to the public. For any other information on these programs, contact Rider University's Multicultural Center at (609) 895-5781.

Rider University's Lawrenceville campus is located five miles south of Princeton and three miles north of Trenton on Route 206 in Lawrence Township, NJ. The campus is one-half mile south of exit 7A of Interstate 95.