Lecture Series

Throughout the year, the Hooks Institute frequently hosts or cosponsors events with other Interdisciplinary Centers at the University of Memphis, where prominent scholars, political figures, and social activists from across the nation lecture in their area of expertise.  Additionally, visiting guests are encouraged to meet with small groups of students and faculty for in-depth discussions on historical and current issues of social justice.

For university students, most of whom were born a decade or more after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the lectures reveal issues that affect their daily lives, but which are too often treated as dusty artifacts of a distant past. For community members, the lecture series offers continuing education and affirms a commitment to building a stronger and more racially and socially  just community, nation, and world.

All of our events are open and free to the public, unless otherwise noted. For a complete list of all of our events, please visit the calendar page.

Hooks Lectures

Higher Education: Meeting the Needs of the 21st Century
Richard D. Legon, President
American Association of Governing Boards
of Universities and Colleges
April 8, 2010

Economic Mobility and the Power of Post-Secondary Education
John Morton, Managing Director
The Pew Charitable Trusts
April 9, 2010

Raggedy Schools: Education’s Untold Truth
Steve Perry
Capital Preparatory Magnet School (Hartford, CT)
April 9, 2010

Civil Rights and Social Justice: Past, Present, and the Future
Benjamin L. Hooks
Capitol Hill (Washington, DC)
Oct. 6.  2009, and
University of Memphis
November 4, 2009

Through the Fire! Through The Flood!
Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.  (Chicago, IL)
April 3, 2009

Forgetting the Righteous: The Fayette County Movement in History and Memory
Charles Payne, Ph. D. (Duke University)
October 28, 2006

Repairing the Past: Racial Violence after World War I and the Politics and Reconciliation
Chris Capozzola, Ph. D. 
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
October  20, 2006

Worker Justice in a Global Society: Revisiting Martin Luther King’s Unfinished Agenda
Michael Honey, Ph D. (University of Michigan)
April 3, 2006

After Race: Racism after Multiculturalism
Antonia Darder, Ph. D. (University of Illinois)
April 1, 2005

African Americans and the Social Contract
Bill E. Lawson, Ph. D. (Michigan State University)
September 16, 2004

Civil Rights in the Era of Social Wrongs
Patricia Williams, J.  D. 
(Columbia University Law School)
October 12, 2004

Fifty Years After Brown
Lee C.  Bollinger, J. D.  (President, Columbia University)
February  12, 2004