Dr. Yohuru Williams, distinguished university chair and professor of history and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas, will deliver the first Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture on Wednesday, March 22, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the AMU Monaghan Ballrooms.
In this lecture, titled “To be just, it is not enough to refrain from injustice,” Williams will explore the social responsibility of the Jesuit university in contemporary conversations about racial justice through the lens of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s liberatory thought, Catholic Social Teaching, his scholarship on Black Power and his experiences with Ignatian Spirituality and Jesuit education as an undergraduate student, faculty member, department chair, associate VP for academic affairs and trustee.
Register online to attend.
Williams is the author, editor and co-author of numerous books including “Call Him Jack: The Story of Jackie Robinson, Black Freedom Fighter”; “After Life. A Collective History of Loss and Redemption in Pandemic America”; “Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement”; and “In Search of the Black Panther Party.” He received his Ph.D. from Howard University in 1998.
In addition to being a regular contributor on the History channel, Williams has appeared on a variety of local and national radio and television programs including on ABC, CNN, MSNBC, Almanac, BET and NPR. He was featured in the Ken Burns PBS Documentary “Jackie Robinson” and the Stanley Nelson PBS Documentary “The Black Panthers.” Dr. Williams’ scholarly articles have appeared in the American Bar Association’s Insights on Law and Society, The Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, The Black Scholar, The Journal of Black Studies, Pennsylvania History, Delaware History, the Journal of Civil and Human Rights and the Black History Bulletin. Williams’ new co-authored book “More Than A Dream: The Radical Roots of the March on Washington,” will be out in August from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
