Library MLK Day Speakers

Library MLK Day Speakers
1989-2005

YEAR	SPEAKER	CAREER HIGHLIGHTS	CAMPUS MLK THEME Starts in 1999
1989	Gwendolyn Brooks 1917-2000	Poet and novelist Pulitzer prize in poetry, 1950, for Annie Allen
1990	Haki Madhubuti	As poet, publisher, editor and educator, Haki R. Madhubuti serves as a pivotal figure in the development of a strong Black literary tradition, emerging from the era of the sixties and continuing to the present. Over the years, he has published 24 books (some under his former name, Don L. Lee) and is one of the world's best-selling authors of poetry and non-fiction, with books in print in excess of 3 million.
1991	Claude Brown 1937-2002	Member of Harlem Buccaneers Gang's "Forty Thieves" division and served three terms at Warwick School, New York City, during 1940s; worked confidence games and dealt in drugs, New York City, 1953-54; worked as a busboy, watch crystal fitter, shipping clerk and jazz pianist in Greenich Village, 1954-57; writer and lecturer. WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR: Manchild in the Promised Land, Macmillan, 1965. The Children of Ham, Stein & Day, 1976.
1992	Alex Haley 1921-1992	American biographer, scriptwriter, author who became famous with the publication of the novel ROOTS. In it Haley traced his ancestry back to Africa and covered seven American generations, starting from his ancestor, Kunta Kinte. The book was adapted to television series, and woke up an interest in genealogy, particularly among African-Americans. Haley himself commented that the book was not so much history as a study of mythmaking: "What Roots gets at in whatever form, is that it touches the pulse of how alike we human beings are when you get down to the bottom, beneath these man-imposed differences."
1993	Gloria Naylor	Gloria Naylor won critical and popular acclaim for her first published novel, The Women of Brewster Place. In that book, as in her successive novels, including Linden Hills, Mama Day, and The Men of Brewster Place, Naylor gave an intense and vivid depiction of many social issues, including poverty, racism, homophobia, discrimination against women, and the social stratification of African Americans.
1994	Mary Frances Berry	Mary Frances Berry is a longtime member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights who served as chairperson of the commission during the Clinton presidency. A legal scholar and historian based at the University of Pennsylvania, Berry has concerned herself with issues of civil rights and women's equality with emphasis upon the Equal Rights Amendment. Born in Nashville and educated at Howard University and the University of Michigan, Berry was serving as chancellor of the University of Colorado in Boulder when she was tapped byPresident Jimmy Carter to be the assistant secretary for education in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. In January of 1980, Carter named her to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She was vice chairman of the commission until 1982, and then continued in her membership until President Bill Clinton named her chairperson in 1993.
1995	bell hooks Gloria Jean Watkins	Gloria Jean Watkins, who writes under the name bell hooks (cited in lowercase), has written prolifically about many social issues. Her work takes an approach that is at once analytical yet also impassioned and personal. She explores the ways that African-American culture, womanhood, feminism, the civil rights movement, and critical theory both clash and complement each other, in the world at large and in her personallife. She has challenged the feminist movement with being largely racist, and has frequently voiced her concern over the negative images of blacks perpetuated in the popular media.
1996	Bobby Seale Robert George Seale	After being dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force for opposing a white colonel, Bobby Seale returned to his California home, where he began his studies at Merritt College. As a member of the school's Afro-American Association, Seale met activist Huey P. Newton, with whom he founded the Black Panther Party, a militant organization aimed at protecting ghetto residents from police brutality and securing equal rights for blacks. Although at first an entirely black organization, the Panthers in 1968 included some white radical groups and came to be known as the Peace and Freedom Party.
Year	Speaker	Career Highlights	Campus MLK Theme
1997	Farai Chideya	"I don't want to say the same thing as everyone else," Farai Chideya told People, reflecting on her unique position as a young black woman television correspondent with ABC. "I'm trying to update our view of America." With a background in journalism, a stint at MTV, frequent spots on CNN political roundtables and other public affairs programs, an Internet website, and two well-reviewed books, Chideya has dedicated herself to overturning American myths about race, gender, sexuality and other matters with tenacity and zeal. Chideya was born in New York to a Zimbabwean businessman father and an American mother who worked as a journalist and as a high school teacher. During her childhood she traveled to Zimbabwe and Kenya. She did most of her growing up in Baltimore. "It's still my 'home'--the place where I've got roots and family,"
1998	Patrice Gaines	Gaines's first book, 1994's Laughing in the Dark: From Colored Girl to Woman of Color--A Journey from Prison to Power, expanded on her spoken recollections to become an inspirational autobiography. Career: Journalist and public speaker. Washington Post, Washington, DC, journalist, 1985--; Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, presenter of "It Happens Here: Oppression, Drugs, and Self-Discovery, " 1997; also worked for other newspapers, including Charlotte Observer and Miami Herald.
1999	A drama performance of the play Camp Logan by Celeste Bedford Walker Mountain Top Productions	This gripping drama, based on the 1917 court-martial and execution of 19 black soldiers from the US Army's 24th Infantry who mutinied in Houston, tells the story of superlatives. It was the largest mutiny in the U.S. Armed Forces and resulted in the largest murder trial in U.S. History. Camp Logan has been touring for more than 15 years; it won the 1994 NAACP Award for Best Drama; and it is the #1 Black History Program of the U.S. Department of Defense. A fully staged production with a cast of nine, "Camp Logan" explores the emotional and cultural pressures that brought a group of black soldiers with a record of exemplary service to the military bar and the executioner's field.	"On The Verge of a New Millennium…STAND!"
2000	Earl Ofari Hutchinson "The Eternal Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr	Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a noted author of nine books about the African American experience in America. His numerous published articles appear in newspapers and magazines across the country as well as some of the most popular web sites on the Internet. He is a radio host and TV commentator. He has received several awards for his writings. Career: Editorial consultant for Monthly Review Publishers, 1970-71; Mafundi Institute, Los Angeles, CA, instructor in journalism, beginning 1972; former public affairs director for radio station KPFK; lecturer at colleges and universities. Member of board ofdirectors, Paul Robeson Community Center.	"MLK2K: Shattering Barriers and Transcending Borders"
2001	Carmen Tafolla Dramatic Performance of a one woman show	Carmen Tafolla's "most characteristic and powerful poems, " according to Yolanda Broyles Gonzalez in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, "are those in which she brings barrio personalities to life using their own voices.... Tafolla shows a rare sensitivity toward the registers of barrio speech of persons from various age groups and walks of life." In one of her plays, Tafolla herself plays many parts: a first-grader, an old lady, a soldier, a janitor, and others. She also holds a Ph.D. in bilingual education from the University of Texas, Austin, which she received in 1982.	"Renewing the commitment@umich.edu"
Year	Speaker	Career Highlights	Campus MLK Theme
2002	Sherman Alexie "Killing Indians: Myths, Lies and Exaggerations"	Drawing heavily upon his experiences as a native Spokane/Coeur d'Alene tribal member who grew up and still lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington, writer, performer, and filmmaker Sherman Alexie has garnered high praise for his poems and short stories of contemporary Native American reservation life, among them The Business of Fancydancing, a poetry collection Alexie has since adapted into a film. Alexie, who performs many of his poems at poetry slams, festivals, and other venues, has received praise for the energy and emotion he brings to his work. Alexie broke further barriers when he helped create the first all-Indian movie. Smoke Signals, for which he wrote the screenplay based on his short stories, was produced, directed, and acted by Native American talent.	"Honoring, Challenging and Living"
2003	bell hooks	See 1995	"We must be the change we wish to see in the world"
2004	Christopher Edley, Jr	Christopher Edley Jr. combines academic expertise in public policy and civil rights law with an impressive record of hands-on public policy work in the White House, on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail. A veteran of two tours of White House service and twice that many presidential campaigns, Edley has played a central role in the high-stakes world of national politics for nearly 30 years. As special counsel to President Clinton, he led the White House review of affirmative action programs and helped develop Clinton's "Mend it, don't end it" position on affirmative action; at the Office of Management and Budget he oversaw one-quarter of the federal budget. In the Carter administration he served as assistant director of the White House domestic policy staff, where his responsibilities included welfare reform, social security and a variety of anti-poverty measures.	"Still Separate? Still Unequal Brown v. Board of Education 50 years later"
2005	Juan Cole "How Democratic is American Iraq"	Juan R. I. Cole is Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the History Department of the University of Michigan. A bibliography of his writings may be found here. He has written extensively about modern Islamic movements in Egypt, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. He has given numerous media and press interviews on the War on Terrorism since September 11, 2001, as well as concerning the Iraq War in 2003.	"…but we have not learned the simple Art of Living Together…"