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Andrews University Martin Luther King Jr. Forum
Will and Brenda were warmly welcomed and enthusiastically received by both the students and 
administration of Andrews University on January 11th; Brenda as the featured speaker and Will as a former student from the 1980's. Will helped in the back with the slides while Brenda presented the exciting story of her father and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Paulette Johnson, Dean of Libraries, who had invited Brenda, wrote:
Thank you so much for telling the exciting and enduring story of your dad's legacy and your family's role in the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement. Your message to our campus of working together in Christian love was well received. I would love to invite you back to the library specifically. If you have any availability in February, please let me know.
P.S. We would be excited to return as well!
In these photos, Brenda speaks to the student body in the Andrews University Howard Performing Arts Center.
Brenda to Speak at Sacred Heart of Mary Book Club
Sacred Heart of Mary Catholic Church Book/Movie Discussion Group will be hosting Brenda on Wednesday August 14, 2024 at 6:30 in the Parish Hall, located at 51841 Leach Road, Dowagiac, MI 49047.
Brenda will be speaking about her father's work with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the 1960s.
Brenda Walker Beadenkopf is the author of A Quaker Behind the Dream, a two-volume biography of her father Charles Walker, a pacifist Quaker and expert in nonviolence. He worked with Dr. Martin Luther King in the Civil Rights Movement helping with nonviolence training and writing training materials.
A Quaker historian, she has researched the history of her Quaker church, Penn Friends, of the Quakers in the area such as James E. Bonine, and her own Quaker ancestors, the Walkers of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Chief Leopold Pokagon and his tribe of Potawatomi Indians built a log church here in 1838 and deeded the forty acres of land on which it stood to the Catholic Bishop of Detroit. Pokagon, who came to Silver Creek Township from his village outside of nearby Niles, was buried on this site in 1841. During the early 1840s the Holy Cross Fathers of Notre Dame in Indiana ministered to the Indians.The white frame church built in 1861 burned in 1886 and was immediately replaced by this present structure.
Books will be available, and refreshments will be served.
By Brenda Beadenkopf
Brenda proceeded with her presentation about her father on January 16th, but did so from home to a well attended Zoom meeting, since weather conditions prevented meeting in person. Watch her presentation here.
Brenda’s Philadelphia Quaker father, Charles C. Walker, met and corresponded with Dr. Martin Luther King. When and why did they meet? What common beliefs held their friendship? How did they develop the principles, strategies, and tactics of nonviolence used successfully in the movement?
CELEBRATI0N OF MARTIN LUTHER AND MARTIN LUTHER KING
On June 15th, Brenda spoke at the Augustana Lutheran Church 7pm about A Quaker Behind the Dream as part of a Martin Luther/Martin Luther King presentation. As the Lutheran Church is based on the teachings and faith of Martin Luther, the Church felt it fitting to present the similarities between Luther and King. The first speaker was to be Rev. Kevin Adams of the Faith Temple Church of God in Christ, to compare the two, particularly in how they were alike.He had a personal emergency, but Sister Nora filled in for the Reverend, pointing out that the two men were VERY strong Christian men, rooted in the Bible, who stood up to the governmental and church authorities of the time, even to being excommunicated and arrested or imprisoned for their Godly beliefs.