The City of Columbia will hold the 36th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration service at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park on Monday, January 15 beginning at 4:00 pm. Monday, January 15 is National Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Dr. Bobby J. Donaldson is the Keynote Speaker for the event. Dr. Donaldson serves as a Professor of History and the Executive Director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina-Columbia, where he holds the James E. and Emily E. Clyburn Endowed Chair of Public Service and Civic Engagement.
Presently, he serves as the lead scholar and the founding director for the Columbia SC 63, a project that examines the struggle for civil rights and social justice in Columbia and around the state of South Carolina.
A native of Augusta, Georgia, Dr. Donaldson received his undergraduate degree in History and African American Studies from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and his Ph.D. in American History from Emory University.
During the course of Dr. Donaldson’s academic career, he served as a Benjamin E Mays-Andrew Mellon Fellow, as an editorial assistant for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Emory and Stanford universities, as a Thurgood Marshall Dissertation Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College, as a Fellow of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, and as the Faculty Principal of Preston Residential College at the University of South Carolina.
Professor Donaldson is the recipient of the University of South Carolina’s distinguished Michael J. Mungo Undergraduate Teaching Award, the John N. Gardner Inspirational Faculty Award, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Social Justice Award. In 2017, he was awarded the Stephen Morrison Visionary Award by the One Columbia for Arts & Culture Organization. In 2018, he received the South Carolina Governor’s Award in Historic Preservation and the South Carolina Governor’s Humanities Award. In 2019, Dr. Donaldson was awarded an honorary degree by Benedict College. Recently, he received the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award from the Columbia Urban League.
Dr. Donaldson’s memberships include the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the Organization of American Historians, the Southern Historical Association, the South Carolina Archives and History Commission, the editorial board of the University of South Carolina Press, the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission, the South Caroliniana Society, the NAACP, the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and the Wesleyan University Board of Trustees.
He and his wife are the proud parents of two children.
Speakers during the commemoration service will also include Columbia Assistant City Manager Henry Simons, Reverend Dr. Aaron Bishop of Harvest Hope Food Bank, and the Master of Ceremonies will be Curtis Wilson. There will be musical selections provided by the Carver Lyon Elementary School Choir and Carver Lyon Elementary School Bucket Drummers. Sponsors and Winners from the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dream Keeper Scholarship and Honor the Dream Food Drive will be recognized during the ceremony.
WHAT: City of Columbia’s 36th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration
WHO: Dr. Bobby J. Donaldson, City Council, City Parks and Recreation Officials, City Officials, Partnering Sponsors
WHERE: Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, 2300 Greene St, Columbia, SC 29205
WHEN: MONDAY, January 15, 2024 at 4 p.m.