Hill to speak at Palm Beach State College King celebration Jan. 14

Dr. Marc Lamont Hill

Dr. Marc Lamont Hill

The event includes a presentation of the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award recipients

Lake Worth, FL - by McDonald, Tabatha - Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, host of HuffPost Live and BET News as well as a political contributor for CNN, will be the keynote speaker at Palm Beach State College’s 17th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration.

The event will be held at 11 a.m. at the Duncan Theatre on the Lake Worth campus, 4200 Congress Ave. It is free and open to the public, but attendees are asked to RSVP at www.palmbeachstate.edu/mlk.

As part of the celebration, PBSC will present Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Awards to four people and an organization that have made contributions toward improving the lives of others in Palm Beach County. The honorees are:

• Ashley Tripp (Alumni), co-owner of Tripp Electric Motors in Belle Glade who was instrumental in establishing the nonprofit organization Lake Okeechobee Regional Economic Alliance of Palm Beach County in response to the need for a local economic entity,
• Rand Hoch (Individual), a retired judge and founder of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council,
• Rebecca Stremel (Student), a PBSC student who has volunteered at several high schools in the county to help and encourage students interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects,
• Shona Castillo (Faculty/Staff), a PBSC employee who has worked tirelessly to address and raise awareness of community issues and to cultivate an appreciation for volunteerism among students, and
• CROS Ministries (Organization), which operates community food pantries and other programs to serve the hungry in Palm Beach and Martin counties.

Hill, a distinguished professor of African American studies at Morehouse College, has been a social justice activist and organizer since his days as a youth in Philadelphia. He is a founding board member of My5th, a nonprofit organization devoted to educating youth about their legal rights and responsibilities, and a board member and organizer of the Philadelphia Student Union.

Hill also works closely with the ACLU Drug Reform Project focusing on drug informant policy. Over the past few years, he has actively worked on campaigns to end the death penalty and to release numerous political prisoners.

In 2011, Ebony magazine named him one of America’s 100 most influential Black leaders, and he has received awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

Hill, who previously worked at Columbia and Temple universities, is the author of three books: the award-winning “Beats, Rhymes and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity;” The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations on Black Life in America;” and “The Barbershop Notebooks: Reflections on Culture, Politics and Education.” He is currently completing two manuscripts.

Visit www.palmbeachstate.edu for more information about the celebration and the honorees.