The 2021 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium will focus on the theme “Cashing Our Promissory Note: Race, Justice, and Reparation,” based on the powerful excerpt from the Rev. Dr. King's speech at the March on Washington in 1963. This event is part of Africana Studies Distinguished Lecture Series, and will take place on Wednesday, February 3, from 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. ET. Author, historian, and journalist Jelani Cobb, will give the keynote address at this year’s symposium. Cobb is the Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism at Columbia University as well as staff writer for The New Yorker, where he writes about race, politics, and injustice. He is well-known for his prominently featured role in Ana Duvernay’s Oscar-nominated documentary "13th" about the mass incarceration of Black Americans. He is also the author of several books, including "Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress," "To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic," and "The Devil & Dave Chappelle and Other Essays." Cobb was the producer and correspondent of PBS Frontline’s investigative series "Policing the Police," for which he was awarded the Walter Bernstein Award from the Writer’s Guild of America in 2017. The event will include a keynote address and a moderated Q&A. If you would like to attend a Pre-Symposium Lunch to further discuss this year’s theme in facilitated small groups, please join us on Wednesday, January 27 from 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.