Valpo Announces Molefi Kete Asante, Ph.D., as Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Keynote Speaker

March 17, 2021 – Valparaiso, Indiana – Valparaiso University will continue its annual tradition of celebrating the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 7, 2021.

For more than 30 years, Valpo has engaged students, faculty and staff, as well as the broader Northwest Indiana community, in purposeful dialogue about King’s legacy and how to further it today. This year’s theme is inspired by King’s quote, “This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”

This year’s celebration, titled “Lessons from the Movement,” will feature a keynote address from Molefi Kete Asante, Ph.D., professor and chair of the department of Africology at Temple University.

Asante has often been called the most prolific African American scholar and has been recognized as one of the most influential leaders in education, most quoted living African authors and most distinguished thinkers in the African world. He has written more than 90 books and published more than 500 articles.

At Temple University, he created the first Ph.D. program in African American studies in 1988. He has directed more than 140 Ph.D. dissertations, making him the top producer of doctorates among African American scholars. He is the founder of the

theory of Afrocentricity.

Asante received a B.A. from Oklahoma Christian College, an M.A. from Pepperdine University and a Ph.D. from UCLA.

Due to a shift in the spring academic calendar, Valpo’s celebration was moved to April, in observance of the national day of mourning that was declared after King’s assassination in 1968. Some events, including Asante’s keynote, have been scheduled after 5 p.m. to encourage virtual participation from community members.

A detailed schedule will be published at valpo.edu/mlk prior to the event.