Admission to Conner Prairie is free Jan. 16 as the museum invites visitors to celebrate the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr. and the importance of peaceful protesting.
Conner Prairie will be open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Special events and activities are planned throughout the day, including theatrical performances, family games, archeology activities, art and more.
Three short plays will be performed at various times throughout the day in the museum’s Lilly Theater that share important moments in African-American history. “Freedom Summer 1964” tells a story about two student trainers from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the most important organizations of the Civil Rights Movement, who will introduce audiences to their methods for practicing non-violent protest. “Madam Walker: Her Life” features Madam C.J. Walker sharing her life’s journey from a sharecropper’s daughter to the head of a hair product corporation in the early 1900s. “Rhodes Family Incident” is the story of disillusioned college students who stumble across an historic racial incident in their hometown that makes them see another side to where they grew up.
Other activities throughout the day include:
• Black History Bingo and family board games
• Archaeology: Black, White or Both? Visitors can explore artifacts and learn if they came from a historic African-American community, a white community or both
• Tree of Dreams: Visitors can share their dreams for the future
• Gallery of images of non-violent protests, past and present
• Examination of how peaceful protests of injustice have been and are executed
• Visitors can draw a picture, write a poem and share with others what they would do to protest injustice.
