Angela Davis to present keynote address for King Jr. dinner

American political activist and academic Angela Davis has been announced as the keynote speaker for Southeast Missouri State University’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Dinner on Jan. 29 at the Show Me Center.

“Women in Action: Pursuing the Dream” will be the theme for this year’s dinner. Doors will open at 4 p.m. and dinner is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.

Keynote speakers from previous years include Marc Lamont Hill, Freeman A. Hrabowski III, Mary Frances Berry and Wes Moore.

Throughout her decades of public speaking, Davis has supported social justice issues, criminal justice reform and gay rights, while opposing issues such as the Vietnam War, the war on terror, the death penalty, racism and sexism, according to the university.

The 75-year-old scholar and civil rights activist has authored 10 books and lectured internationally. Her recent works include “Are Prisons Obsolete?” which focuses on the prison industrial complex, and “Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement”.

Davis was a supporter of the Soledad Brothers in the early 1970s, when she became the third woman to be placed on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list for her involvement in Jonathan Jackson’s attack on a courtroom Marin County, California.

After declaring her innocence before Marin County Superior Court, Davis was placed in solitary confinement and activists across the country began to call for her release.

After spending 16 months incarcerated, the activist was released from county jail on bail. After 13 hours of deliberations, an all-white jury delivered a verdict of not guilty and Davis acquitted June 4, 1972.

In recent years, Davis has continued to speak about the state of prisons. She was one of the founders of the national grassroots organization Critical Resistance, a social movement to abolish the prison system.

Davis also works internationally with Sisters Inside, an abolitionist organization based in Queensland, Australia, working in with women in prison.

She has lectured at Rutgers University, Standford University, Brown University, Syracuse University and Smith College, among others.

Tickets for the dinner are $20 each or $160 for a table of eight. Tickets to the event will go on sale Friday and may be purchased from the Southeast Bookstore, 388 N. Henderson Ave. in Cape Girardeau.

One hundred free tickets will be available for Southeast students at the Center for Student Involvement inside the University Center. Additional student tickets are $5 each.

For more information, email mlkcommittee@semo.edu or call (573) 651-2626.