{"id":413042,"date":"2026-02-01T17:20:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T22:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=413042"},"modified":"2026-02-02T12:39:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:39:36","slug":"celebrating-two-decades-of-the-mlk-commemorative-address-413042","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/celebrating-two-decades-of-the-mlk-commemorative-address-413042\/","title":{"rendered":"From dream to dialogue: 25 years of the MLK Jr. Commemorative Address"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking back on a quarter century of keynote speakers for URochester\u2019s annual event, which brings civil rights leaders, activists, poets, and icons to campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":672,"featured_media":413352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-413042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-events"],"acf":{"external":"","hide_featured_image":false,"related":"show_related","style":[548602,549632,168782],"content_modules":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Looking back on a quarter century of keynote speakers for URochester\u2019s annual event.<\/h2>","content":"On January 26, 2001, social activist Julian Bond stepped to the podium before a packed house at Strong Auditorium on the 糖心传媒<\/a> campus.\r\n\r\nThe topic was \u201cCivil Rights, Then and Now,\u201d and the event was the University\u2019s inaugural Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Address<\/a>. It was created by University leaders two years after students had protested for more administrative support of cultural activities.\r\n\r\nCelebrating King, the civil rights icon who was assassinated in 1968, seemed the logical choice.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere has been so much change, but so much remains the same,\u201d said Bond, then chair of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Bond believed there had been progress toward King\u2019s dream of racial equality and justice\u2014but much still needed to be done.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere are still such large gaps (between races) in life expectancy, income, health, and education,\u201d he said that day. \u201cThe problem of the 20th century is still the problem of the 21st.\u201d\r\n\r\nBond\u2019s speech set the standard for an event that turned 25 this January and has drawn many of the nation\u2019s leaders in diversity, civil rights, and social justice. Among the esteemed keynote speakers have been actors, activists, authors, professors, religious leaders, and television personalities.\r\n\r\nThe event, sponsored by the Office of the President<\/a>, the Office of Mentoring and Student Advocacy<\/a>, and the Office of University Engagement and Enrichment<\/a>, has run every year except 2005, when inclement weather forced its cancellation.\r\n\r\nHere\u2019s a photographic celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Address speakers through a quarter century.","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

William J. Barber II (2026)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_692932\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"The (糖心传媒 photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nA minister, civil rights leader, author, and social justice advocate, Barber is the founder of Repairers of the Breach, a national organization whose mission is to build moral movements for social change.\r\n\r\n
\u201cIn the civil rights movement, they didn\u2019t hardly ever say they were fighting for democracy. They said they were fighting for justice. Because where there is no justice, there is no true democracy.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Giancarlo Esposito (2025)<\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_692922\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Giancarlo (糖心传媒 photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe Emmy-nominated actor is best known for his portrayal of drug kingpin Gus Fring in the acclaimed TV series Breaking Bad<\/em> and its prequel, Better Call Saul<\/em>.\r\n
\u201cMy dream is that we\u2019re able to stand up with one voice, nonviolently, against all that is keeping us in chains and keeping us separate.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Rachel L. Swarns (2024)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_692942\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Rachel (糖心传媒 photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nSwarns is an author and news correspondent who has contributed to the New York Times <\/em>for three decades. She\u2019s also a journalism professor at New York University.\r\n
\u201cHistory can be an engine of change, but it\u2019s also a weapon.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Anthea Butler and Valeria Sinclair-Chapman (2023)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_692952\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Valeria Valeria Sinclair-Chapman (left foreground), Jeffrey McCune Jr. (center), and Anthea Butler (right). (糖心传媒 photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe two former 糖心传媒 professors spoke about social justice and religion with Jeffrey McCune Jr.<\/a>, the director of URochester\u2019s Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies<\/a> and the inaugural chair of the Department of Black Studies, created in 2022<\/a>. Butler is a professor and chair of the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s department of religious studies; Sinclair-Chapman is a professor of political science at Purdue University.\r\n
\u201cWhat I want people to understand is that while people are talking about moral issues, they\u2019re also talking about race, and you can\u2019t escape that in America. It\u2019s not about good or bad religion, it\u2019s what people are doing with religion.\u201d \u2013Butler<\/em>\r\n\r\n\u201cYour spiritual foundations or religious beliefs can keep you going when other things will want to make you give up. If you\u2019re ever looking for hope, that is a way to find it.\u201d \u2013Sinclair-Chapman<\/em><\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Rheeda Walker (2022)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_692962\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1337\"]\"Rheeda (Photo courtesy of Rheeda Walker)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWalker was a professor of psychology and a behavioral scientist at the University of Houston when she came to URochester to discuss the mental health challenges facing Black people. Author of The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health<\/em>, she joined the faculty at Wayne State University in Detroit in 2024.\r\n
\u201cEvery hero story has some person who needed to figure out who they were. Once they did, they were unstoppable.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Ibram X. Kendi (2021)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_692972\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1000\"]\"Open (糖心传媒 photo \/ Lori Packer)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe author and antiracist activist was named one of Time<\/em> magazine\u2019s 100 most influential people of 2020. On February 24, 2021, he spoke via Zoom to a virtual audience<\/a> of nearly 3,000 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.\r\n
\u201cThe very heartbeat of racism is denial. When people say they\u2019re not racist, they\u2019re sharing the words that white supremacists use.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Eddie Glaude Jr. (2020)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_692982\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Eddie (糖心传媒 photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nA professor in African American studies and religion at Princeton University, Glaude has written essays for the New York Times<\/em>, Huffington Post<\/em>, and Time<\/em> magazine.\r\n
\u201cIn so many ways, today feels like we\u2019re fighting not so much old battles but old ghosts that can continue to haunt.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Symone Sanders-Townsend (2019)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_692992\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Close-up (糖心传媒 photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe former national press secretary for Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential campaign was a senior advisor for Joe Biden\u2019s presidential campaign when she came to URochester. She went on to co-host the political news program The Weeknight<\/em> on what is now MS Now.\r\n
\u201cDr. King\u2019s entire life was about bucking the status quo. You can\u2019t do the work needed to move the needle in our community if you\u2019re not willing to buck the status quo.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Maria Hinojosa (2018)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693002\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Maria (糖心传媒 photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe investigative journalist has been the host and executive producer of Latino USA<\/em>, a National Public Radio show devoted to Latino issues, since 1992. In 2022, Hinojosa won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Audio Reporting for the seven-part podcast series Suave<\/em>.\r\n
\u201cWe need to get beyond our comfort zones and act, because we feel afraid for our neighbors.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Joy DeGruy (2017)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693012\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Close (糖心传媒 photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nA longtime professor with more than 30 years\u2019 experience in the field of social work, DeGruy is the author of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America\u2019s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing<\/em>.\r\n
\u201cWe need to heal. If we do not heal, we doom future generations.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Marc Morial (2016)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693022\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Marc (糖心传媒 photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe president of the National Urban League since 2003 and the mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002, Morial was named one of the 100 most influential Black Americans by Ebony<\/em> magazine.\r\n
\u201cEvery generation has a responsibility, and a mission, to improve things\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Khalil Gibran Muhammad (2015)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693042\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Close (糖心传媒 photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nMuhammad was executive director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture when he delivered his address. After years of teaching at Harvard, he joined Princeton University\u2019s African American Studies department in 2024.\r\n
\u201cThe hard work of social change is in the everyday waking up to move the needle just a little bit further.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Benjamin Jealous (2014)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693052\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Benjamin (糖心传媒 photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nJealous began his civil rights career at 18 and ran for governor of Maryland in 2018. He was the youngest NAACP president in history, starting in 2008 at age 35.\r\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe in fighting the good fight. I believe in winning the good fight.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Melissa Harris-Perry (2013)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693062\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Melissa (糖心传媒 photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nHarris-Perry is a political analyst, scholar, and professor of political science at Wake Forest University. At the time of her speech, she also hosted her own current affairs program on MSNBC (now MS NOW).\r\n
\u201cThe legacy of King is a reminder that when we live in a democracy, we have a right to govern, and not just be governed.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Alvin F. Poussaint (2011)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693072\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Alvin (糖心传媒 photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nA Harvard University professor of psychiatry and a noted author, Poussaint focused his work on the mental health of Black people. He served as a script consultant to both The Cosby Show<\/em> and A Different World<\/em>. Poussaint died in 2025 at age 90.\r\n
\u201cUntil the Black consciousness movement, \u2018Black\u2019 was a derogatory word.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Joseph Lowery (2010)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693082\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Joseph (糖心传媒 photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nLowery worked the front lines of the civil rights movement in the 1950s alongside King and Rosa Parks. He founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with King and others and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. He died in 2020 at 98.\r\n
\u201cWe must not stop with honoring the man, we must honor the mission as well.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Nikki Giovanni (2009)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693092\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Nikki (糖心传媒 photo \/ Brandon Vick)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nOne of the world\u2019s best-known Black poets\u2014referred to as the \u201cPrincess of Black Poetry\u201d\u2014Giovanni has written more than 30 books and was an English professor at Virginia Tech before retiring in 2022.\r\n
\u201cWithout the Pullman Porters, the Civil Rights Movement would not have been financed.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Andrew Young (2008)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693102\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1000\"]\"Andrew (糖心传媒 photo \/ Richard Baker)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe former Atlanta mayor and US ambassador to the United Nations was a top aide to King and is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.\r\n
\u201cThe direction Dr. King\u2019s life took was not a fun path. It was not a glorious path. It was a necessary path.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Jesse Jackson (2007)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693112\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Jesse (糖心传媒 photo \/ Richard Baker)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nJackson worked with King during the tumultuous civil rights period of the 20th century. A minister, politician, and activist, he has expanded his work across international lines to foster social justice issues.\r\n
\u201cInjustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Martin Luther King III (2006)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693122\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"468\"]\"Martin (糖心传媒 Campus Times photo \/ Jeff Levy \u201908)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe eldest son of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is an American human rights advocate and community activist. Since 2024, he has been a professor of practice with the University of Virginia\u2019s Center for Politics.\r\n
\u201cThere comes a time to rise above the dream and get about the work of fulfilling the dream. Arise now and come forward.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Christopher Edley Jr. (2004)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693132\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Christopher (糖心传媒 photo \/ Elizabeth Lamark)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe first Black to head a major law school (University of California, Berkeley), he was a senior member of five presidential campaigns. He died in 2024 at age 71.\r\n
\u201cRace is harder than rocket science. You\u2019ve got to be prepared to work at it.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Morris Dees (2003)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693142\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1000\"]\"Side (糖心传媒 photo \/ Elizabeth Lamark)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe civil rights attorney best known for his victories against white supremacist groups was co-founder and former chief trial counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center based in Montgomery, Alabama. He was national finance director for Jimmy Carter\u2019s 1976 presidential campaign.\r\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a battle going on today, and it\u2019s a battle over whose America this is.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Mary Frances Berry (2002)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693152\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]\"Extreme (糖心传媒 photo \/ Elizabeth Lamark)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe former chairman of the US Commission on Civil Rights under President Bill Clinton, Berry was a longtime faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania and taught courses on American legal history and the role of law in social policy.\r\n
\u201cEven as we cite gains for people of color in the worlds of entertainment, sports, and business, there are large numbers of people in this country who are still at the bottom.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"

Julian Bond (2001)<\/strong><\/h3>","content":"[caption id=\"attachment_693162\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1000\"]\"Black (糖心传媒 Campus Times photo \/ Dave Schneider \u201903)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe late social activist served as chairman of the NAACP (1998\u20132010) and was elected to four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives.\r\n
\u201cMartin Luther King speaks in death as he never did in life.\u201d<\/blockquote>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"","content":"Editor\u2019s note: This story was originally published on January 17, 2020. It has been updated to include the latest information about the past speakers through 2026.<\/em>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"}]},"yoast_head":"\nFrom dream to dialogue: 25 years of the MLK Jr. Commemorative Address<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Address has been a URochester tradition, bringing civil rights leaders, activists, poets, and icons to campus.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/celebrating-two-decades-of-the-mlk-commemorative-address-413042\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From dream to dialogue: 25 years of the MLK Jr. Commemorative Address\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Martin Luther King Jr. 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