University vice president and husband author MLK viewpoints in Oregonian, Register-Guard

UO Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Yvette Alex-Assensoh and her husband, A.B. Assensoh – a courtesy professor of history at the UO – authored guest opinion pieces in both the Oregonian and The Register-Guard over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.

Sunday's column in the Oregonian, "MLK, income inequality and the War on Poverty, ties together the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty and the 85th anniversary of King's birth. It points out that racial and ethnic minorities still make up a disproportionate share of the nation's poor and raises the question of what King's reaction would be if he were still alive.

Monday's piece in The Register-Guard, "King holiday met resistance in Senate, states," takes an historical look at the MLK holiday on the 30th anniversary of its observance. The King holiday was signed into law in November 1983 by President Ronald Reagan and was celebrated for the first time on the third Monday of January in 1984.