“Building Community in an Hour of Chaos: Progress in the Age of Obama” will be the topic

 Marc Lamont Hill, Ph.D., an award-winning journalist, anthropologist and author, will speak at the University of Missouri-Kansas City to honor the memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The UMKC Division of Diversity and Inclusion’s Eighth Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture will take place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 27.

One of America’s 100 most influential black leaders according to Ebony magazine, Hill’s topic is “Building Community in an Hour of Chaos: Progress in the Age of Obama.” The lecture will be held in Pierson Auditorium, Atterbury Student Success Center, 5000 Holmes St.

“Through this lecture series, we are able to encourage UMKC students, staff, faculty and the Kansas City community to build upon the courageous, non-violent activism of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.,” said Susan Wilson, vice chancellor, Division of Diversity and Inclusion. “Marc Lamont Hill is a well-respected journalist, and he speaks to the challenges of race in America and the unique challenges facing African American men in America.”

Hill is one of the leading intellectual voices in the country and is host of HuffPost Live and BET News, as well as a political contributor for CNN. He is the former host of the nationally syndicated television show “Our World with Black Enterprise” and political contributor to Fox News Channel. Hill has received numerous prestigious awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

He is author of three books, including the award-winning “Beats, Rhymes and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity.”

Hill is a distinguished professor of African American Studies at Morehouse College. Prior to that, he held positions at Columbia and Temple Universities. He is a founding board member of My5th, a nonprofit organization devoted to educating youth about their legal rights and responsibilities. He also is a board member and organizer of the Philadelphia Student Union and works closely with the ACLU Drug Reform Project, focusing on drug informant policy. Over the past few years, he has actively worked on campaigns to end the death penalty and to release numerous political prisoners.

Beginning with the Rosa Parks Lecture on Social Justice and Activism in 2007 and annually since 2009 with the Martin Luther King Lecture Series, the Division of Diversity and Inclusion honors these individuals’ tremendous contributions to furthering civil rights by bringing national thought leaders to campus, who provide insight and advocacy to current civil rights issues of education, economic and justice system inequalities.

The event is free and open to the public, however, registration is required. To register, visit the Division of Diversity Event Registration website.

Free parking is available in the Cherry Street Parking Garage, 5000 Cherry St., on the fifth and sixth levels.