The 20th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration will be Thursday through Monday in Lawrence.

The event is presented each year by the Ecumenical Fellowship Inc., an association of historically black churches in the city. The city of Lawrence, Kansas University, Lawrence public schools, Haskell Indian Nations University, the Lawrence Association of Evangelicals and several corporate sponsors also are helping.

Here is a schedule of the events:

An educational program will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Lawrence High School. A representative from each school in USD 497 will talk about the service project students from his or her school completed in honor of King. Students also will perform music.

The MLK Historic Exposure event — a film — will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday at the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence, 1520 Haskell Ave.

The annual banquet will be at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the Kansas Union Ballroom. Keynote speaker will be author and radio host Carl Boyd, who will offer a first-hand account of race relations from the perspective of an educator.

The annual gospel musical will be at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Lawrence Free Methodist Church, 31st and Lawrence Avenue.

The commemorative program will be at 11:15 a.m. Monday at the Lied Center. Keynote speaker will be Terrence Roberts, one of the “Little Rock Nine” — the black students who were the first to integrate the Little Rock, Ark., public schools in 1957. On their first day, they faced an angry mob of more than 1,000 whites in front of the school. President Eisenhower then sent 1,200 members of the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army to escort the nine black students into school.

All of the Lawrence events are free and open to the public.

Tickets to the annual banquet dinner and program Saturday are also free this year, but participants must have a ticket to attend the event. Tickets will not be available at the door.

To obtain tickets to the banquet and program, please call 843-8913, or the Kansas University Office of Multicultural Affairs, 864-4351. Or contact any of the pastors who belong to the Ecumenical Fellowship or the Lawrence Assn. of Evangelicals.

The celebration will cost at least $13,000 to $14,000, said Rev. William Dulin, president of the group of historically black churches. The city is contributing $5,000. Donations are still needed, Dulin said. He said he didn’t know how much more was needed.