Martin Luther King Jr. Day event is Thursday, Jan. 22, featuring Professor Yohuru Williams

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 19, the University of North Dakota will hold its annual celebration and awards ceremony starting at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22, at the Memorial Union Ballroom.

The Office of Community & Belonging and The Hilyard Center invite all to attend the event, titled “Rediscovering Lost Values” and featuring a keynote speech from Yohuru Williams, distinguished university chair and professor of history at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.

The event will also feature the Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Awards, which are given to individuals who actively demonstrate a commitment to social justice in the UND community.

Williams, in addition to his professorship, serves as the founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas.

According to his biography on the university’s website, Williams is the author, co-author and editor of 11 books, including “Call Him Jack: The Story of Jackie Robinson,” “Black Freedom Fighter” and “More Than A Dream: The Radical March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom,” which was longlisted for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature.

Williams has appeared on a variety of local and national television and radio programs, including the History Channel (featured on the docuseries “Kevin Costner’s The West”), CNN, Fox Business News, NPR, BET and ABC. His scholarly articles have been published in the American Bar Association’s “Insights on Law and Society” and the “Journal of Civil and Human Rights.”