The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture will present the Seventh Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium on January 16, 2012, 7 PM - 8:45 PM, in the Winspear Opera House in Dallas’ AT&T Performing Arts Center. The theme for this year’s program is “The World Dr. King Inherited & Changed.” Keynote speaker will be Isabel Wilkerson, the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for her work as Chicago Bureau Chief at The New York Times. Dr. Robert Green and Dr. Carol Francois, both with direct links to the Great Migration, will lead the discussion panel following Wilkerson’s keynote address.

“The World Dr. King Inherited & Changed” will address an aspect of Dr. King’s legacy which is in danger of being forgotten: the social and cultural conditions that led to the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. Wilkerson, the author of The New York Times’ bestseller The Warmth of Other Suns, will be discussing the dramatic, untold stories of American history from the “great migration” of some six million black citizens who fled the South and Jim Crow laws from 1915 to 1970 in search of a better life. The Seventh Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium will also feature Dallas citizens who can recall and relate personal experiences before, during, and after the Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. King.

“For this Symposium we felt it was important to take our audience back to the time before the Civil Rights Movement swept the nation,” said Dr. Larry Allums, executive director of The Dallas Institute. “By doing this, only then can we truly reflect on the incredible impact Dr. King had on our country and how far we have come in the last 50 years. I am thrilled that Isabel Wilkerson will be the first African American woman to speak at our MLK Jr. Symposium. With her historical insight and extensive experience in the world of narrative journalism, this event is one that I urge everyone, whatever their race, to come together for and encounter as one.”

The program will begin at 7 PM with a keynote address, followed by an interview and discussion until 8:45 PM. The discussion panel will include Dr. Carol Francois and Dr. Robert Green. Dr. Francois is a career educator, having served over the years as Teacher, Principal, Dean of Instruction, and Chief of Staff for Dallas ISD. She is originally from Allentown, PA, as a result of the Great Migration. Dr. Green is Professor Emeritus and a former Dean at Michigan State University who worked in the 1960’s for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as Education Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He is the son of a minister who migrated to Detroit to work in Henry Ford’s automobile factories where he shepherded untold numbers of blacks from the south to Detroit where he ensured they had jobs and housing.

The MLK Symposium is open to the public, but attendance is by reservation only. Admission is $20; admission for teachers and students is $10. Group rate for 10 or more is $15 per ticket. To register, call the Winspear box office at (214) 880-0202 or go to www.attpac.org. For Group Sales (10 or more) contact Jason Keller at (214) 978-2878. For more information, call (214) 871-2440 or visit www.dallasinstitute.org.

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