Each January, Penn honors the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. with the Commemorative Symposium on Social Change, a series of community events that highlight the civil rights leader’s life, service and work. This year’s remembrance runs from Friday, Jan. 13 through Friday, Feb. 3.

One of the keynote events of the symposium is the Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture in Social Justice, co-sponsored by the Office of the President, the Center for Africana Studies and the Annenberg School for Communication.

The 11th annual lecture, scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 5:30 p.m. at Zellerbach Theatre, features veteran Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile in conversation with Camille Z. Charles, the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Social Sciences at Penn and director of the Center for Africana Studies.

“Today, issues of poverty, militarism, and economic conservatism are a reminder of similar themes and struggles during the late 1960s,” says Charles. “I look forward to sharing a conversation with Donna Brazile that not only probes her thoughts on current struggles to save the American dream broadly, but the role that race plays as well.

"I am also interested in her thoughts on the role of the U.S. and the current international struggles for social justice being waged," she adds.

Brazile, vice chair of Voter Registration and Participation at the Democratic National Committee, has spent more than 40 years in politics, beginning at age 9 when she worked to elect a city council candidate who promised to build a playground in her neighborhood. She served as former Vice President Al Gore’s campaign manager in 2000, making her the first African-American woman to manage a presidential campaign.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Center for Africana Studies at 215-898-4965 or www.sas.upenn.edu/africana.