Joyce Johnson to Give MLK Celebration Keynote Jan. 19
Joyce Hobson Johnson, who is director of the Jubilee Institute of the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, will be the keynote speaker for Guilford College’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 19, in Dana Auditorium.
This year’s celebration has the theme “Social Justice Through the Ages,” and all events are open to the public at no charge. Two other public programs are scheduled:
● Jan. 16, 12:30-4 p.m., “The American Dream: Campus Teach Ins” on MLK Day, Joseph M. Bryan Jr. Auditorium in the Frank Family Science Center.
● Jan. 18, 7-10 p.m., “An Unfinished Conversation with Lee Mun Wah,” internationally known diversity trainer, and a showing and discussion of the film “If These Halls Could Talk: Racism and Higher Education,” Dana Auditorium.
Johnson will speak after a gospel music performance. A question-and-answer session will follow her address and a closing reception will take place in the lobby of Dana Auditorium.
Her activism began as a high school student in Richmond, Va., during the 1960s struggle for civil rights and open accommodations. She deepened her involvement in college while supporting campus non-academic employees and the movement for relevant education. A former university professor and research director, Johnson is currently director of the Jubilee Institute of the Beloved Community Center, a community-based leadership development and training entity.
In 2001, Johnson was among the group that established the Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project, an initiative designed to encourage truth, understanding and healing throughout Greensboro related to the shooting of five labor organizers by Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party members on Nov. 3, 1979.
Johnson and her husband, the Rev. Nelson N. Johnson, played a leading role in this model for pursuing racial and economic justice. They were recognized for their work in 2005 through the prestigious Ford Foundation “Leadership for a Changing World Award” and the Faith and Politics Institute of Washington, D.C. “St. Joseph Day Award.” They also received the Purpose Prize Award, sponsored by Encore Careers and Civic Ventures, in 2008.
Johnson received her undergraduate degree from Duke University and pursued graduate studies at N.C. A&T State University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and UNC-Chapel Hill.
