{"id":4962,"date":"2025-12-16T20:32:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T20:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/?p=4962"},"modified":"2026-01-07T22:17:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T22:17:42","slug":"2026-mlk-birthday-convocation-and-for-my-people-awards-luncheon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/2025\/12\/16\/2026-mlk-birthday-convocation-and-for-my-people-awards-luncheon\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 MLK Birthday Convocation and For My People Awards Luncheon"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span style=\"color: #000000\">Deciding that she would rather celebrate his birth and achievements rather than focus on his death, our founder, Margaret Walker, sponsored one of the first birthday convocations for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on January 12, 1969, at Jackson State University.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/br><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000\">As part of Dr. Alexander&#8217;s legacy, the Margaret Walker Center continues this annual event. Our <strong>58th MLK Birthday Convocation<\/strong> will take place at <strong>10:00 a.m. on January 16th, 2026<\/strong>, in the Rose E. McCoy Auditorium at Jackson State University. We are pleased to announce that our keynote speaker will be Dr. Daphne Chamberlain. The program will also include words from JSU administrators and special guests, as well as performances from the JSU Chorale.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/br><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/files\/2025\/12\/MLK-Convocation-2026-6-For-My-People-2026.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-4964 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/files\/2025\/12\/MLK-Convocation-2026-6-For-My-People-2026-240x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"419\" height=\"524\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/files\/2025\/12\/MLK-Convocation-2026-6-For-My-People-2026-240x300.png 240w, https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/files\/2025\/12\/MLK-Convocation-2026-6-For-My-People-2026-819x1024.png 819w, https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/files\/2025\/12\/MLK-Convocation-2026-6-For-My-People-2026-768x960.png 768w, https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/files\/2025\/12\/MLK-Convocation-2026-6-For-My-People-2026.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 419px) 100vw, 419px\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000\">Each year, the <strong>For My People Awards Luncheon<\/strong> celebrates honorees who are dedicated community members and changemakers. Our luncheon will follow immediately after convocation, in the <strong>JSU Student Center Ballroom A<\/strong>. Tickets to purchase a meal are <span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff\" href=\"https:\/\/jsums.nbsstore.net\/for-my-people-awards-luncheon\">available online<\/a><\/span>. JSU students may register for free; for all other guests, tickets are $25. We are proud this year to honor Dr. Chamberlain, Representative Zakiya Summers, former Representative Alyce Clarke, and the Mississippi Humanities Council with For My People Awards.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deciding that she would rather celebrate his birth and achievements rather than focus on his death, our founder, Margaret Walker, sponsored one of the first birthday convocations for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on January 12, 1969, at Jackson State University. As part of Dr. Alexander&#8217;s legacy, the Margaret Walker Center continues this annual event. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":454,"featured_media":4991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4962"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4995,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4962\/revisions\/4995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/margaretwalkercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}