The 38th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration took place on Tuesday, January 30th, at 8:30am in the LaCava Executive Dining Room.
2024 marked the first annual MLK: Day of Social Justice, Celebration, Listening and Learning. See below for a recap video showcasing the day's programming!
Martin Luther King Jr. Speaker
The MLK Planning Committee was excited to host Dr. Anthony Jack, author of The Privileged Poor Boston University Associated Professor and Newbury Center Faculty Director.
Anthony Jack is transforming the way we address diversity and inclusion in education. He’s an associate professor of higher education leadership at Boston University, and faculty director of BU’s Newbury Center, where he works to increase understanding and equity around first-generation students on ca
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His widely acclaimed book, The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges are Failing Disadvantaged Students, reframes the conversation surrounding poverty and higher education. In it, he explains the paths of two uniquely segregated groups. First, the “privileged poor”: students from low-income, diverse backgrounds who attended elite prep or boarding school before attending college. The second are what Jack calls the “doubly disadvantaged”—students who arrive from underprivileged backgrounds without prep or boarding school to soften their college transition. Although both groups come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, the privileged poor have more cultural capital to navigate and succeed—in the college environment and beyond.
“It’s one thing to graduate with a degree from an elite institution, and another thing to graduate with the social capital to activate that degree,” Jack explains. In many ways, rather than close the wealth gap, campus culture at elite schools further alienate poor students by making them feel like they don’t belong. To challenge these deeply ingrained social, cultural, and economic disparities on campus, we must first begin to question what we take for granted. Jack reveals how organizations—from administrators and association organizers, to educators and student activists—can ask the right questions and bridge the gap.
Jack’s research has been cited by The New York Times, the Boston Globe, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, The National Review, The Washington Post, American RadioWorks, WBUR, and MPR. His book, The Privileged Poor, was named the 2018 recipient of the Thomas J. Wilson Memorial Prize by Harvard University Press.
Past MLK Celebration Speakers
2023 Winona LaDuke
2022 Martina Edwards
2021 LaTosha Brown
2020 April Reign
2019 Callie Crossley
2018 Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
2017 Dr. Walter E. Fluker
2016 Cornell William Brooks
2015 Dr. Mae C. Jemison
2014 Dr. Deborah Willis (Video)
2013 Dr. Neal Lester
2012 Darryl Vernon Poole ‘68 (Video)
2011 Rehema Ellis (Video)
MLK Committee
The breakfast is organized by the MLK Planning committee which includes faculty and staff members from various departments across campus.
Inspirational Quotes
For inspirational quotes by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., please view this document.