37th annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium
Date
Monday, January 16, 2023
Time
10:00am - 12:00pm
Location
Hill Auditorium (or Zoom)
Description
The MLK Symposium will be held at Hill Auditorium. The 2023 symposium kicks off at 10 a.m., with a live stream available for those who cannot attend in person. The keynote address, which will have an in-person component for the first time since 2020, will feature a dynamic mix of local and national speakers and performances.
This year’s theme, “The (R)evolution of MLK: from Segregation to Elevation,” will explore King’s activism after 1964, highlighting the evolution of King’s primary focus on segregation to a broader, more radical, and revolutionary platform that included health, economics and education. King’s quote, “White Americans must recognize that justice for black people cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our society,” defines him as a front-runner in Critical Race Theory.
Keynote panelists from different perspectives will push beyond King’s legacy of “I have a dream” and “nonviolence” to a discussion that centers on King’s more challenging complex legacy calling our society to see solutions to the cultural, economic and governmental root causes of racism.
Learn who the panelists are below:
- Aletha Maybank, M.D., M.P.H., chief health equity officer and senior vice president of the American Medical Association
- Edward Buckles, first-time director and best new documentary director winner of The Albert Maysies Award for documentary, Katrina Babies
- Jalen Rose, former NBA and U-M basketball star, current ABC/ESPN analyst and founder of the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy
Following the keynote panelist discussion, an opera created by a U-M professor Stephen Rush will be performed by a fellow U-M professor Scott Piper. The event concludes with Vincent Bohanan’s song, “We Win,” to be performed by the Voices of Distinction from the Detroit School of Arts, and conducted by Julian Goods, a graduate of U-M.
