LEWISTON – The Rev. John Mendez, pastor of the Emmanuel Baptist Church of Winston-Salem, N.C., will be the keynote speaker for Bates College’s 2005 Martin Luther King Jr. Day observances.

Scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Monday in the Bates College Chapel, Mendez’s address will be part of a daylong celebration of King’s life and work that includes performances, workshops, exhibitions and a debate among Bates, Morehouse and Spelman college students. As has become tradition, classes at the college will be canceled for the day and the public is invited to attend all special events. This year’s theme is “From Montgomery to Memphis: Martin Luther King’s Legacy of Labor, Justice and Dignity.”

Events begin with a reception for “Unfree Labor and the Production of Language: An Exhibition of Words,” a display curated by Czerny Brasuell, director of multicultural affairs, and Baltasar Fra-Molinero, associate professor of Spanish. On display through Jan. 24, the exhibition showcases artifacts that reflect the Creole languages that arose as a result of slavery. The reception will begin at 4:30 p.m. Friday in the college’s Chase Hall Gallery on Campus Avenue.

On Sunday, the college will host a worship service in the chapel on College Street. It will begin at 7 p.m.

Student debaters from Bates, Morehouse and Spelman colleges kick off events Monday when they argue the topic “College Employees Should Unionize.”

Mendez will deliver his keynote address in the chapel at 10:45 a.m.. A native of New York City, Mendez has served as pastor of the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Winston-Salem for 21 years. An experienced lecturer noted for his contributions to civil and human rights, Mendez is a founding member of Re-framing the Dialogue on Racism, an organization that recruits, trains and builds a community of 100 white clergy from different denominations across the country to create strategies, ministries and programs at the congregational level that address racism in the white community.

After the speech, Bates will offer a series of afternoon workshops on labor justice. Programs begin at 1:15, 2:30 or 3:35 p.m. in classrooms throughout Pettengill Hall. Topics range from the life of 19th-century African American Bates alumna Stella James Sims to Lewiston labor history.

The day will end with a 7:30 p.m. performance in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall featuring The Fruit of Labor Singing Ensemble, the cultural arm of the civil rights and worker rights organization Black Workers of Justice.

All events are free and open to the public. More information may be obtained by calling 786-6400. A complete list of workshops is available on the Internet at www.bates.edu/x62204.xml.