The for Inclusive Excellence Project at California State University, Northridge will host a webinar celebrating the life of the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Tuesday, Jan. 18, from 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

As part of “Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute: Memorializing Legacies,” guest speaker Harry E. Johnson, Sr., president and CEO of the Memorial Foundation will discuss the importance of having a monument honoring King at the National Mall in Washington D.C., and how the Memorial Foundation is continuing to carry the civil rights leader’s legacy. The foundation was responsible for building the King memorial at the National Mall.

“Honoring Dr. King for our kick-off event is very symbolic, for what he represents for all of us who are engaged in work on race, racism and cultural solidarity,” said CSUN Asian American studies professor Edith Chen. “Dr. King’s work, and the movements he has inspired, have been important for not only African American civil rights, but for Asian American civil rights and the struggle for social justice.”

The goals of the AACIEP are to provide a “space for dialog through inquiry and historical relevance” and provide guest lecturers who promote cultural solidarity within the Africana-Asian communities, said Africana studies professor Cedric Hackett.

“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated so powerfully that ‘Intelligence plus character, that is the goal of true education’,” Dominique Moye, director of CSUN’s Black House, added. “The opportunity to engage in dialogue as a campus community on critical luminaries that have fought for justice and equality is the essential ingredients for building character.”

AACIEP includes participants from CSUN’s Department of Africana Studies, the Department of Asian American Studies, Black House, Dubois-Hammer Institute for Academic Achievement, China Institute, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, College of Engineering and Computer Science, College of Humanities and University Library.

The Jan. 18 event is supported by a Diversity and Equity Innovation Grant from the university, the grant was established to support educational projects, scholarly research, creative activities and other programmatic initiatives that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, anti-racism and social justice for the benefit of the CSUN community.

The event will be hosted on zoom. The information for login can be found on the Africana Studies event page.