Valpo Announces Nikole Hannah-Jones as 2018 Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Keynote Speaker

Valparaiso University will continue its tradition of honoring the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 15, 2018, with its 28th annual celebration, centering on the idea of “Why We Can’t Wait.”

Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had come alongside sanitation workers fighting for a living wage and humane working conditions. King died fully committed to the idea that this nation — and, indeed, the whole world — cannot wait for justice. A half century later, his clarion call for people of good will to join the struggle remains as urgent as ever. Through lectures, presentations and interactive discussions, Valpo will engage students, faculty and staff as well as the broader Northwest Indiana community to collectively reflect on King’s legacy and how to continue his work.

This year’s keynote speaker, investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, covers racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine and has spent years chronicling the way official policy has created — and maintains — racial segregation in housing and schools. She was named a 2017 MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow for “reshaping national conversations around education reform” and has won a George Polk Award, a Peabody and a National Magazine Award. She has written extensively on the history of racism and inequality, school resegregation and the disarray of hundreds of desegregation orders and the decades-long failure of the federal government to enforce the landmark 1968 Fair Housing Act. She is currently writing a book on school segregation called “The Problem We All Live With,” to be published on the One World imprint of Penguin/Random House.

Detailed information about the 28th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration will be announced at a later date.