Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service
Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service

Teach Dr. King’s Speech

Read “King in the Classroom,” an article on the Teach the Speech Initiative in the Spring 2022 Georgetown magazine.

RSVP for January 31, 2025 Teach The Speech Teach-In
Teaching Resources for Teach the Speech 2025
Access the YouTube LIVESTREAM for Teach the Speech 2025

Each year, Georgetown faculty, staff, and students across campuses and schools read and reflect on one of Dr. King’s speeches/texts during the spring semester. The 13th annual Teach the Speech event on January 31, 2025 will focus on this interview (full text) that Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. offered on May 8, 1967 to NBC, 11 months before his assassination, as part of their special report “After Civil Rights: Black Power.” In the interview, Dr. King comments on the “new phase of the struggle for genuine equality.”

Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to attend this event on Friday, January 31, 2025 from 10:00am-3:00pm in-person in Copley Formal Lounge on the Hilltop campus and online. This year’s event will feature an Anti-racism Examen (guided community reflection & dialogue space on anti-racism), a lecture by Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly, a student reflection offered by Kyndall Jackson (C’27), and a book signing of Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States.

Parts of the event will be livestreamed via CSJ’s YouTube channel. Review the schedule below and RSVP via the link above according to how you plan on participating in the event.

10:00-10:30am: Community gathering with coffee, tea, and pastries
10:30am-12:00pm: Antiracism Examen (guided community reflection and dialogue space on antiracism), including a student reflection offered by Kyndall Jackson (C’27)
12:00-12:45pm: Community gathering with lunch
12:45-1:45pm: Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly lecture with Q&A moderated by Dr. Orisanmi Burton
1:45-2:00pm: Break (coffee and tea)
2:00-3:00pm: Book signing of Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States with Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly

Faculty members and staff can utilize this 2025 Teach the Speech Teaching Resource created by CNDLS as they plan for the 2025 spring semester. We ask faculty who are thinking about incorporating a teach the speech element into their courses to fill out the RSVP form as well. We will provide more resources and opportunities for a CNDLS consultation with interested faculty in the coming year. We also hope to have a community event later in the semester; inviting all faculty to share their experiences and reflections.

This year’s event features Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly, Associate Professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University. Her research and scholarship engage the Black radical tradition, 20th century Black social and political thought, the intersection of antiblack racial oppression and U.S. state repression, and globalization and economic development in the African diaspora. Dr. Burden-Stelly is the author of Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States and the co-author of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Life in American History. Some of her notable publications include “Against the ‘Triple Evils’: The Biden Administration’s Affront to Dr. King’s Legacy and “Martin Luther King Jr. and the Tradition of Radical Blackness.”

Dr. Orisanmi Burton, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at American University, was the Teach the Speech keynote speaker in January 2024. 

The priority deadline to RSVP for the event is January 21, 2025. While registrations are accepted after this date, this deadline will allow us to coordinate spaces and food. Requests for accommodations related to disabilty can be made at csj.georgetown.edu/ar. A good faith effort will be made to meet all requests submitted by Friday, January 24, 2025. Questions can be sent to racialjustice@georgetown.edu.