Austin is in for a treat this Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Residents will have the chance to listen to someone who participated in the activist spirit of the times.

The Austin Human Rights Commission hopes to send a message of service to the community for the 25th anniversary of the MLK holiday. To that end, the HRC is sponsoring a talk on Jan. 17 by James Kates, one of the activist volunteers who took part in the Freedom Summer of 1964, where civil rights organizations sent hundreds of volunteers to Mississippi to help black voters register. The events of that summer, which included national media coverage of the deaths of three volunteers, is seen as one of the major turning points in the civil rights struggle.

“The message is we want people to serve,” said Kirsten Lindbloom, the chairwoman of Austin’s HRC.

There will be two presentations given, one to Austin High School students and one to the community at 7 p.m. that night. Kates will share some of his experiences from that summer, and there will be performances by members of AHS’s CORE group, a reading of Josie Nelson’s winning HRC essay from last year and community members as well, from the book, “Letters from Mississippi: Reports from Civil Rights Volunteers & Poetry of the 1964 Freedom Summer.”

“You had hundreds of white, northern college students traveling by bus, by train, by car, heading south to be a part of this, and to be serving,” Lindbloom said.

In addition, the 2011 Austin Human Rights Award Recipient will be announced. The award, which has not been given for the past four years, will recognize people in the community who have contributed positively to the cause of human rights in the area. Seven nominees were brought forth after the HRC called on the community to nominate their neighbors in December.

“You don’t need to go far,” Lindbloom said. “There’s things that can be done right here to make a difference.”