January 17, 18, 19 2025

UE’s annual MLK Celebration will be held January 17, 18, 19 2025 . The complete schedule is listed below. To register for the Day of Service, click the respective button below.

Order of Events

• MLK Day of Service

• Faith-Based Dialogue
  • Held in Shanklin Theatre at 3:00 p.m.

• Rally and Symbolic March
  • 2:30 p.m. – Rally at Meeks Family Fieldhouse
  • 3:00 p.m. – Symbolic March
    See Rally and Symbolic March Details Below
• William G. and Rose M. Mays Lectureship, 2025 Mays Legacy Award, and Rising Star Service Award presentations. Eykamp Hall
  • 3:30 p.m. – Doors open for reception with DJ, heavy hors d’oeuvres/light dinner
  • 4:00 p.m. –  Mays Legacy Award and Rising Star Service Award presentation
  • 4:15 p.m. –  Entertainment
  • 4:30 p.m. –  Speaker/ Lecture: Dr. Jelani Cobb
  • 5:15 p.m. –  Young Leaders Panel
  • 5:45 p.m. - 6:15 p.m. –  Book signing

Program Details

MLK Day of Service

Saturday, January 17

Faith Based Dialogue
One Body, Many Voices: A More Faithful Approach to Race and Equity in the Church

Sunday, January 18, 3:00 pm
Shanklin Theatre

Rally and Symbolic March

Monday, January 19

Rally

2:30 p.m.

Meet at the Meeks Family Field House at 2:30 p.m. to reflect on the day and the meaning and importance of our Collective Leadership in a Changing World.

Speakers will include:

• Christopher M. Pietruszkiewicz, President
• Ms. Alexa Ferguson, Director of the Center for Inclusive Excellence
• Ms. Jacovia Young, Black Student Union (BSU) President
• A Representative from Alpha Phi Alpha
• Dr. Rob Shelby, Vice President for Talent & Community and Chief Inclusion & Equity Officer
• Ms. Bre Bondurant, Spiritual Formation Coordinator

Hot Chocolate will be provided.

Symbolic March

3:00 p.m.

On August 28, 1963, more than a quarter million people participated in the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, gathering near the Lincoln Memorial.

Following the Rally, join us as we come together to commemorate the struggle for peace, fairness, hope, and love… the work of countless individuals past, present, and future.

William G. and Rose M. Mays Lectureship

Monday, January 19

The program opens with award presentations at 4:30 p.m.

• 4:00 p.m. – Mays Legacy Award and Rising Star Service Award presentation
• 4:15 p.m. – Entertainment
• 4:30 p.m. – Speaker/ Lecture: Dr. Jelani Cobb
• 5:15 p.m. – Young Leaders Panel
• 5:45 p.m. - 6:15 p.m. – Book signing

This Year’s Speaker

Held in Eykamp Hall on the second floor of Ridgway University Center, the William G. and Rose M. Mays Lectureship will be an opportunity for community members to join in fellowship. The time will be filled with performances, student speakers, award presentations, and our featured keynote speaker.

Peabody Award-winning journalist Jelani Cobb is a clear voice in the fight for a better America. The Dean of Columbia Journalism School and PBS Frontline correspondent for two critically acclaimed documentaries, Jelani explores the enormous complexities of our history, politics, and culture, while offering guidance and hope for the future. A long-time writer for The New Yorker, the editor of its anthology collection The Matter of Black Lives, and the author of Three or More Is a Riot, Jelani “combines the rigor and depth of a professional historian with the alertness of a reporter, the liberal passion of an engaged public intellectual, and the literary flair of a fine writer” (Hendrik Hertzberg, The New Yorker).

Jelani is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he writes on history, justice, politics, and democracy, as well as Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism and Dean of Columbia Journalism School.

His most recent book, Three or More Is a Riot (2025), is a collection of both published and original writing from his frontline reporting over the last decade. As one of the most insightful and important figures in American journalism, Jelani draws on his storied career to offer a look back at one of the most consequential eras of American history, and a look forward at what lies ahead. Three or More Is a Riot is a vital contribution to the question of what it means to be American.

He previously co-edited The Matter of Black Lives, a collection of  The New Yorker’s most ground-breaking writing on Black history and culture in America, featuring the work of legendary writers like James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. Jelani also edited and wrote a new introduction for The Kerner Commission—a historic study of American racism and police violence originally published in 1967—helping to contextualize it for a new generation.

During a historic election, Jelani investigated allegations of voter fraud and disenfranchisement as a PBS Frontline correspondent in the documentary  Whose Vote Counts, revealing how these unfounded claims entered the political mainstream. He clearly presents how racial inequities, COVID-19, and voter suppression became interlinked crises. Whose Vote Counts received a Peabody Award for tackling one of the key issues at the heart of modern U.S. politics and carefully elucidating what the fight for voting rights looks like in the 21st century. Jelani was also the correspondent for the Frontline documentary  Policing the Police, where he examined the movement for police reform and accountability. Jelani was prominently featured in Ava Duvernay’s 13th, her Oscar-nominated documentary about the current mass incarceration of Black Americans, which traces the subject to its historical origins in the Thirteenth Amendment.

Jelani was named the American Humanist Association’s 2025 Humanist of the Year. Fish Stark, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association, said, “Dr. Cobb is a secular educator in the best sense—someone who teaches his students not what to think, but how to think, both clearly and ethically. Dr. Cobb has never flinched when confronting the hard truths of our time. He has been a fierce advocate of our democratic ideals and has embodied a humanist patriotism—one that says we owe each other better.”

Jelani is the recipient of the Hillman Prize for opinion and analysis journalism, as well as the Walter Bernstein Award from the Writer’s Guild of America for his investigative work on Policing the Police. He is the author of  Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress, and  To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic. He is also a recipient of fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation and the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Journalism Project, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2023. He was appointed the Dean of Columbia Journalism School in 2022.

Community Leadership Panel

Following the talk, join us for an inspiring Community Leadership Panel as part of our annual MLK Day Lectureship, where distinguished leaders from diverse sectors come together to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy of service, justice, and transformative leadership. This dynamic discussion will explore the ongoing challenges and opportunities in advancing equity, inclusion, and social change within our communities.

Panelists will include JC Campbell with Center for Congregations and Pastor of Greater Hope Christian Church, Adriana Soto Executive Director of HOLA Evansville, Dr. Juliette Aura representing Mental Health and Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology, Trinisia Brooks Director of Community Schools and Family Engagement with EVSC and Founder of YOUr Advocate Consulting, LLC, and Josh Calhoun Executive Director at HOPE of Evansville.

Panelists will share their personal journeys, highlight impactful initiatives, and engage in a thought-provoking dialogue about the collective action needed to create meaningful change. Audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions and reflect on how they can contribute to fostering justice and unity in their own spheres of influence.

This panel is a celebration of community resilience here in Evansville and a call to action to uphold Dr. King’s dream of equality and opportunity for all.