SCHENECTADY — NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson will deliver a speech, titled “How Far We Have Come and Where We Need to Go,” at Union College's Nott Memorial this month as part of the college's Martin Luther King Jr. celebration.
The Jan. 16 event is at 5:30 p.m. and free and open to the public, although registration is suggested.
During Johnson's time with the NAACP, the organization has launched the Log Out Facebook Campaign, which criticized Facebook after Russian hackers were reported to be targeting African-American users. The NAACP has also begun the Jamestown-to-Jamestown Partnership which marked the 400th year since enslaved Africans first arrived in America, as well as the We are Done Dying Campaign which exposed the inequities embedded in the American health care system and the country at-large.
“A longstanding member and leader of the NAACP, Mr. Johnson has helped guide the Association through a period of re-envisioning and reinvigoration,” the NAACP states on its website.
Johnson has appeared on numerous national TV news stations as a civil rights issues expert, and also served as an annual guest lecturer on social movements at Harvard Law School, according to a Union news release.
The talk is sponsored by the Office of Intercultural Affairs, the chief diversity officers and the Capital Region Chamber of Commerce, the college's release said.
The third Monday of January is a federal holiday in the United States in remembrance of King Jr.'s birthday — Jan. 15.