The Southern Arkansas University 20th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Memorial March and Ceremony is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Monday, January 19, 2015. The theme for the festivities is “Remember! Act! Celebrate! A Day On Not A Day Off!”
The March will begin at the former Miller’s Cafeteria parking lot on Vine Street at 5 p.m. and proceed down University Street to the SAU Reynolds Center. The ceremony will begin around 5:30 p.m. in Foundation Hall. The community is encouraged to participate in the march and attend the ceremony.
The keynote speaker for the ceremony this year will be Cory D. Childs, a lawyer in central Arkansas and an SAU alum. He is licensed to practice law in Arkansas and before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Childs earned his undergraduate degree in finance from SAU in Spring 1999. In May 2008, he graduated with honors with a Juris Doctorate from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. At UALR, Childs served in several leadership roles including president of the Student Bar Association, associate editor of the UALR Law Review, member of UALR’s Moot Court Team and member of the Black Law Students Association’s Moot Court Team.
After graduation, he served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Lavenski Smith at the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Immediately following his clerkship, he became an associate at Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates and Woodyard, P.L.L.C. in Little Rock. There he advises business clients in all aspects of commercial transactions, including real estate and securities law related matters.
He continues to hold several leadership roles in his community. He is currently the president of the W. Harold Flowers Law Society and the Region VIII director of the National Bar Association. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the William H. Bowen School of Law Alumni Association and District Counsel of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
He is married to the former Wendy R. Mack of Magnolia. They have a 17 year-old daughter, Channa, who is a senior at Little Rock Central High School. The family attends St. Mark Baptist Church in Little Rock.
