MLK Dream Week highlighted by 1619 Project creator

• Link to: Northwestern Now Story

Northwestern University will commemorate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with virtual Dream Week events Jan. 17 to 24. This year’s keynote speaker is Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and creator of the New York Times’ 1619 Project. The keynote conversation at 5 p.m. Jan. 24 is free and open to the public.

Dream Week 2022 is a cross-campus collaboration with Northwestern’s Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion.

For the complete Dream Week 2022 schedule and registration links, visit the Northwestern MLK website.

Dream Week 2022 events

MLK Candlelight Vigil
Hosted by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated Alpha Mu Chapter
Monday, Jan. 17, 3 p.m.
RSVP online

Hosted annually since 1980 by Northwestern’s Alpha Mu Chapter of Dr. King’s fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha, the 2022 Candlelight Vigil address will be given by Northwestern alumnus Dr. Jeffrey Sterling (’85), a physician, author, speaker, business leader and activist in community-based medicine, health care and public health, and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity brother. A free will donation for the March of Dimes is suggested.

Hannah-Jones was selected to deliver the keynote addresses by the Dream Week 2022 committee to provide insight into the national conversation for a call to action for social progress and change.

“Through investigative reporting, Hannah-Jones’ body of work examines a continued truth about racial injustice in our nation’s history and present,” said Robin R. Means-Coleman, vice president and associate provost for diversity and inclusion. “More, her reporting comes at a critical time when we must all be reminded to be agents of positive change in our society.”

Reservations are required for the keynote events. The link to register for the webinar will be posted soon on the Northwestern MLK website.

• Chicago conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones
Noon Monday, Jan. 24; Register online

Keynote speaker Nikole Hannah-Jones will participate in a conversation with Dr. Linda I Suleiman and Robin Walker Sterling. Suleiman is director of diversity and inclusion, McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University; assistant dean of medical education and assistant professor of orthopedic surgery and medical education at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. Sterling is associate dean for clinical education; director of the Bluhm Legal Clinic; and Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law at Northwestern University, Pritzker School of Law 

• Evanston conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones
5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24; Register online
This event is free and open to the public

Nikole Hannah-Jones will participate in a conversation with Charles Whitaker, dean and professor at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.

• Who is Nikole Hannah-Jones?
Noon Tuesday, Jan. 18; Register online

A webinar discussion with Professors Leslie Harris and Kate Masur of History, African American Studies, and Gender and Sexuality Studies to discuss Jones’ work as a journalist, its antecedents, its significance, and the controversies it has generated. A list of further reading and resources will be available. Students, staff, and faculty with all levels of familiarity with Jones or The 1619 Project are welcome. This event is sponsored by The Women’s Center, the Feinberg Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and the Pritzker School of Law.

• Today I Have Hope: Local Community Organizers Panel
Noon Wednesday, Jan. 19; Watch online

A panel of Chicago-area community organizations that highlight the work people in the community are doing to support diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

• Streaming of "The American Dream" Speech Delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King
Noon Thursday, Jan. 20; Location: Atrium, Law School (375 E. Chicago Ave.) or Watch online

Streaming of the “The American Dream” speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on July 4, 1965, at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

• Chicago Campus Oratorical Contest
Noon Friday, Jan. 21; Watch online

All Chicago Campus students and staff are invited to participate in the 2022 Oratorical Contest. The top three finishers in the staff and student categories will be awarded prizes ranging from $150-$300. The 2022 topic is: “If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience.

• Service opportunities
Various dates and times; Registration and more info online

Nikole Hannah-Jones

Nikole Hannah-Jones is an investigative reporter covering racial injustice and creator of the New York Times’ 1619 Project. Published in 2019, the 1619 Project commemorated the 400th anniversary of the beginning of slavery in what would become the United States, examined slavery’s modern legacy and reframed the way Americans understand history and the contributions of Black Americans to the nation. Hannah-Jones’ lead essay was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for commentary.

In 2016, Hannah-Jones co-founded the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, a training and mentorship program for increasing the ranks of investigative reporters of color.

Prior to the New York Times, Hannah-Jones was a reporter at ProPublica in New York, the Oregonian in Portland and the News and Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has written extensively about school resegregation and chronicled the decades-long failure of the federal government to enforce the landmark 1968 Fair Housing Act.

In addition to the 2020 Pulitzer Prize, Hannah-Jones has been awarded three National Magazine Awards, one Peabody Award, two Polk awards and a MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellowship, among other honors. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Society of American Historians and was inducted into the North Carolina Media and Journalism Hall of Fame in 2021.

Dr. Jeffrey Sterling

Dr. Jeffrey Sterling is president and CEO of both Sterling Initiatives, a healthcare consulting and implementation firm, and SIMPCO, LLC, a managed preventative care organization. He is also founder of the Minority Association of Pre-Health Students, a national chapter organization of medical and other health career aspirants, with 300 college chapters nationally.

A proud Northwestern alumnus, Sterling served two terms as president of the Northwestern University Black Alumni Association (NUBAA). Additionally, he is a co-founder of the NUBAA Archives, the first effort toward documenting the history of Black students at Northwestern and served as executive producer of the documentary “The Takeover: The Revolution of the Black Experience at Northwestern University.”