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Postponed: Tenth Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Tribute

by Maggie Rotermund on 01/07/2022
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Maggie Rotermund
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01/07/2022

UPDATE: The annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Tribute, scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, and hosted by Saint Louis University and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, has been postponed.

Ilyasah Shabazz
Ilyasah Shabazz.

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The annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Tribute, scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, and hosted by Saint Louis University and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, will be live-streamed.

The event, featuring keynote speaker Ilyasah Shabazz, will be live-streamed on Saint Louis University's website.

Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz, will give the keynote address. The tribute  will begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 12. In-person attendance at the event is closed, but the livestream is open to public.

Shabazz is the co-chairperson of the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. Her work focuses on institution building and intergenerational leadership development with the tenants of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Shabazz is also an award-winning author, educator and producer. She has authored five historical novels and served as a project advisor for the PBS documentary film Prince Among Slaves.

Awardees

In its 10 years, the MLK tribute at SLU has drawn an array of distinguished speakers. In 2018, diplomat and noted civil rights champion Ambassador Andrew Young, delivered the tribute’s keynote address. He received the Civil Rights Legends Award. Young told the crowd, “This country is not going backward.”

Previous awardees have included Martin Luther King III; Rev. Starsky Wilson; Kelvin Adams, Ph.D., superintendent of the St. Louis Public Schools; Marc Morial, president of the national Urban League; and civil rights leader Xernona Clayton, among others.

This year’s tribute will be held in the Wool Ballroom, Busch Student Center. All in-person participants will be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination. 

Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers more than 15,200 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. At the core of the University’s diverse community of scholars is SLU’s service-focused mission, which challenges and prepares students to make the world a better, more just place.