By William H. Kelly III
(JACKSON, Miss.) – Jackson State University’s Margaret Walker Center (MWC) will host its 57th annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Birthday Convocation. The event will take place in JSU’s Rose E. McCoy Auditorium on Friday, Jan. 17, at 10 am.
This year’s keynote speaker is Charles M. Payne, Ph.D. the Henry Rutgers Distinguished Professor of African American Studies and director of the Joseph Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Research at Rutgers University-Newark. Payne’s 1995 award-winning book, “I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle,” will also be celebrating its 30th anniversary. It has won awards from the Southern Regional Council, Choice Magazine, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America.
“We are so lucky to have Dr. Charles Payne joining us this year. His classic book, “I’ve Got the Light of Freedom,” fundamentally transformed our understanding of the civil rights movement in Mississippi, and as we host our 57th annual MLK Convocation at JSU, no one can better help us understand the history of the movement in this state and situate it within Dr. King’s ongoing legacy,” said Robert Luckett, Ph.D. director of the Margaret Walker Center.
In January 1969, Margaret Walker began the MLK Convocation at Jackson State to honor King just nine months after his assassination, making it one of the nation’s oldest celebrations of his life. Payne joins its list of notable speakers for the 57th celebration.
On Thursday, Jan. 16, Payne will also join the MWC to launch “Reflections on the Mississippi Movement.” This new and special event will examine two seminal works, including Payne’s “I’ve Got the Light of Freedom” and “Local People” by John Dittmer. The occasion will feature a ribbon cutting commemorating recent upgrades to the COFO Civil Rights Education Center, an unforgettable panel of scholars engaging in conversation about the civil rights movement in Mississippi, and a reception to follow.
The ribbon cutting will kick off at 3:30 pm at the COFO Center. The panel will follow soon after.
The MLK convocation and Reflections on the Mississippi Movement event is free and open to the public.
About Payne
In 1970, Dr. Charles M. Payne earned one of the country’s first bachelor’s degrees in African American Studies from Syracuse University. He is one of the leaders of the Freedom School Project, which advocates the creation of educational spaces that are affirmative, dignity-centered, and agency-building. He was also among the founders of the Education for Liberation Network. Payne co-directed the Carter G. Woodson Institute, which involved University of Chicago faculty in the professional development of Chicago Public School teachers.
Payne has won several teaching awards, including being named to the Bass Society of Fellows for Excellence in Teaching and Research at Duke University and holding the Charles Deering McCormick Professorship of Teaching Excellence at Northwestern. In 2021, the University of Chicago Committee on Education established the Charles M. Payne B.A. Thesis Prize for the best undergraduate thesis submitted by students enrolled in their Education and Society program. He chaired the African American Studies departments at Northwestern and Duke. Payne also served briefly as Chief Education Officer at Chicago Public Schools.
His interests include urban education and school reform, social inequality, social change, and modern African American history.
About the Margaret Walker Center
The Margaret Walker Center is an archive and museum at Jackson State University dedicated to the preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of African American history and culture. Founded as the Institute for the Study of the History, Life, and Culture of Black People by Margaret Walker in 1968, the center seeks to honor her academic, artistic, and activist legacy through its archival collections, exhibits, and public programs.
The Margaret Walker Center continues to collect living memories, archival records, and personal papers for scholarly use and advocates for the preservation of built environments such as the historic 1903 Ayer Hall, which is the oldest structure on the Jackson State University campus. The center engages the community and JSU campus through public programs, literacy projects, and educational workshops.
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