Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2024

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration: Whose Quest for Peace and Justice

Join us in honoring the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, January 15, 2024, at 12 pm EST. The event will be held at the GSU Metcalf Hall, 775 Commonwealth Ave, Boston MA 02215.

Hosted by Boston University’s Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, African American and Black Diaspora Studies and Dean of Students Office. We are grateful for the support and sponsorship of our co-host, the City of Boston.

This year’s theme is Whose Quest For Peace and Justice? Inspired by Dr. King’s 1964 Nobel Lecture titled The Quest for Peace and Justice. The lecture outlines “problems of spiritual and moral lag…” The three problems are: racial justice, poverty, and war. Our program will celebrate Dr. King and highlight his written and spoken work.

This year’s keynote speaker is Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. Dr. Taylor is a historian and writer, presenting powerful critiques of the political and economic forces underlying racial inequality. She is the Leon Forrest Professor of African American Studies at Northwestern University with a secondary faculty appointment at Northwestern’s heralded Institute for Policy Research. Taylor brings her experiences as an activist and organizer for housing rights to her scholarship, combining deep understanding of the concrete manifestations of inequality—such as substandard housing, over-policing, and high unemployment—with fine-grained analysis and historical research.

If you are unable to attend this event in person, it will be live-streamed below on Monday, January 15, 2024.