Ambassador Andrew Young to speak at JSU’s Martin Luther King Convocation - Feb. 25

(JACKSON, Miss.) – Perhaps the most iconic, living figure of the civil rights movement, Ambassador Andrew Young will give the keynote address at the 41st annual Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Convocation at 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, in the Rose E. McCoy Auditorium on the campus of Jackson State University. The convocation is sponsored by the Margaret Walker Alexander National Research Center.
Young was one of King’s most trusted advisors and was at his side the day King was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis in 1968. His civil rights activism led him to become a three-term U.S. Congressman, Ambassador to the United Nations under President Jimmy Carter, and Mayor of Atlanta, where Young was instrumental in getting the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games.
Ambassador Young will also be one of four honorees at the 15th annual Isaac Byrd “For My People” Awards Luncheon, which will take place in the JSU Student Center ballroom immediately following the convocation. The “For My People” Awards are named for Margaret Walker Alexander’s most loved poem and are given to individuals who have distinguished themselves in the preservation of African-American culture. Along with Young, this year’s recipients include Alferdteen Harrison, Clarence Hunter, and L.C. Dorsey.
Margaret Walker Alexander founded the forerunner to the Alexander Center, the Institute for the Study of the History, Life, and Culture of Black People, at JSU in 1968. Today, the Alexander Center is both an archive and museum that seeks to honor her artistic and academic legacy through the preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of 20th century African-American history and culture. The Center is open Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., in historic Ayer Hall on the JSU campus.
Board member Rosia Crisler of Jackson is serving as chairperson of these events.