Dr. Martin Luther King once called the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworththe most courageous civil rights fighter in the South.

The clergyman who literally marched arm in arm with King will help West Virginia University honor the life and times of the slain civil rights leader when he speaks during the Universitys annual MLK Commemoration next week.

Shuttlesworth will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 13, at Morgantowns Spruce Street United Methodist Church, for a service organized by WVU s Center for Black Culture and Research and sponsored by Dominion Energy. .*

This is the 20 th year of the commemoration, and along with the evening talk, the program always includes WVU s hosting of the annual Unity Breakfast on the morning of national holiday that bears Kings name. This years breakfast will be at 8 a.m. Monday, Jan. 17 in the Mountainlair Ballrooms, and will feature WVU journalism professor and former network news producer Phylissa Mitchell as the keynote speaker.

The CBC &R during the breakfast will also present its 2005 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award and 2005 Scholarship to the West Virginian, and WVU student, who best embody Kings ideals.

Dr. Katherine Bankole, who directs WVU s CBC &R, said while Kings life was violently taken away (he was shot dead in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968), this years commemoration will be a simple nod of respect to a mission thats very much alive.

And thats why its so vital and important that we gather for Dr. King,Bankole said.He was taken away from us, but his dream is still here. This isnt aboutcolor.Its about community. Its about humankind, and coexisting.

Heres a closer look at the speakers:

*The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth

Shuttleworth was a Selma, Ala., clergyman who would become a member of the civil rights movementsbig three,a trio which included King and fellow minister Ralph Abernathy.

In the spring of 1956, he founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, which made him a target of white supremacists who firebombed his house on Christmas Day of that year and nearly beat him to death.

A year later, the three helped establish the Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an advocacy group for African Americans that carried the credo:Not one hair of one head of one person should be harmed.

Shuttlesworth would go on to participate in sit-in protests at the height of the movement in the 1960s, while helping organize the famed Freedom Riders groups that fanned out across the South to fight segregation. He continues to travel extensively, talking to young people about equality and diversitythemes hell bring to Morgantown Jan. 13.

Phylissa Mitchell

When Mitchell takes the podium during WVU s annual MLK Unity breakfast on the morning of Jan. 17, shell simply talk about the hard work and discipline needed to make a careerand a place in life.

Mitchell parlayed her work ethic and talents to achieve in a variety of environments, from the newsroom to the classroom and courtroom. The P.I. Reed School of Journalism faculty member holds a law degree and also made her name in the pressure-cooker world of network news, working as a writer and producer for ABC News and CBS News in New York before joining WVU three years ago.

Professor Mitchell is someone who has working amazingly hard to achieve her dreams, CBC &R Director Dr. Katherine Bankole said.Shes an African American woman who excelled in law school, and in the news business. And now shes inspiring WVU journalism students with her talent and experience.

The Charlottesville, Va., native paid her dues in local radio and television, climbing the ladder to media Mecca of New York. At ABC , she produced mini-documentaries for the networksLifetime Magazineprogram.

She also chronicled the experiences of a then-record number of women elected to U.S. Congress as the producer ofThe Year of the Womannews series for CBS .

Mitchell earned a law degree from Washington&Lee University School of Law in 2001. Shes also a 1996 graduate of the University of Virginia.