Knox College will present its annual Dr. Martin Luther King Day Convocation at 11 a.m., Monday, January 19, in Harbach Theatre, Ford Center for the Fine Arts, on the Knox campus in Galesburg, Illinois. The event is free and open to the public.

Fred Hord, professor and chair of Africana Studies, will present a speech titled "Separate and Unequal: From Plessy v. Ferguson to Fergusons Today." A member of the Knox faculty since 1988, Hord earned his doctorate in Black Studies: Literature and History from Union Graduate School. He is founder of the Association for Black Culture Centers.

Konrad Hamilton, associate professor of history and chair of the history department, will present a speech titled "Freedom and Security: Policing in a Free Society." A member of the Knox faculty since 1995, Hamilton earned his doctorate in history at Stanford University, where he worked on the team of scholars who edited The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Photo above: Professor Konrad Hamilton at the 2014 Dr. Martin Luther King Day Convocation.)

The convocation will be moderated by Magali Roy-Fequiere, associate professor and chair of Gender and Women's Studies. Laura Lane, professor of music, will conduct the Knox College Choir.

Three Knox students will recite poems: Jordan Hurst '17, "Chloe"; Nicole Hunter '16, "The Advice I've Gotten"; and Catlin Watts '16, "History Repeating."

King, who was killed in 1968, was a Nobel Peace Prize winner, a civil rights leader, minister, and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The third Monday in January is a national holiday in his honor.