2015 MLK Celebration to feature National Urban League president

National Urban League president Marc Morial will give the keynote speech for the University’s celebration of the life, work and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. at 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 20, in the Cone University Center, McKnight Hall.

Morial’s free, public talk “Building Bridges Through Civility, Justice and Action” is sponsored by the UNC Charlotte Multicultural Resource Center. A community reception will follow in the Lucas Room.

During a distinguished and varied professional career spanning 25 years, Morial has served as a Louisiana state senator and mayor of New Orleans. Currently, he is CEO of the National Urban League, the country’s largest civil rights organization.

As mayor of New Orleans, Morial was a popular chief executive with a broad multi-racial coalition who led the city during its 1990’s renaissance. He attacked the city’s vast urban problems, and under his tenure violent crimes and murders dropped by 60 percent, the unemployment rate was cut in half, and New Orleans’s poverty rate decreased, according to the 2000 census.

As president of the National Urban League since 2003, Morial has been the primary catalyst for an era of change in transforming for the 100-year-old civil rights organization. His leadership has expanded the league’s work around an empowerment agenda, which is redefining civil rights in the 21st century with a renewed emphasis on closing the economic gaps between whites and blacks as well as rich and poor Americans.

As part of the Jan. 20 program, Chancellor Philip L. Dubois will deliver a presentation, and there will be student performance by the Voices of Eden Gospel Choir.

For more information, visit the Multicultural Resource Center.