Chronology of the University of Michigan Annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Lecturers
1987 Rep. William Gray III of Pennsylvania
1988 Gov. Douglas Wilder of Virginia
1989 Mayor Willie Brown Jr. of San Francisco
1990 Cesar Chavez, President, United Farm Workers Union
Kevin Locke, Traditional Native American Dancer and Musician, Lakota Nation
1991 Adelaide Sanford, Regent, State University of New York
1992 Maulana Karenga, Director of Black Studies, California State University, Long Beach
1993 Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York
1994 Charles Long, Director for Black Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
1995 Benjamin Hooks, Executive Director of the NAACP
1996 Jocelyn Elders, US Surgeon General
1997 Mary Frances Berry, Chairperson of the US Commission on Civil Rights
1998 Cornel West, Professor of African American Studies and Religion, Harvard University
1999 Nikki Giovanni, Poet, Author and Essayist
2000 Henry Louis Gates Jr., Director of African American Studies, Harvard University
2001 Edward James Olmos, Actor and Humanitarian
2002 Dr. Benjamin Carson, Neurosurgeon and Medical School Alumnus
2003 Grace Lee Boggs, Detroit Activist and Author
2004 Lani Guinier, Harvard Law Professor and Author
2005 Henry G. Cisneros, Former Secretary – US Dept. of Housing & Urban Development
2006 Anna Deavere Smith, Professor, Playwright, Actress
2007 Kweisi Mfume, Executive Director, NAACP
2008 Louis Gossett Jr., Academy Award-winning Actor, Founder of the Eracism Foundation
2009 Julian Bond, Former Chairman of the NAACP
2010 Gwen Ifill, Moderator & Managing Editor of PBS’s “Washington Week” & Co-anchor for the “PBS Newshour”
2011 Shirley Sherrod, Civil rights activist and former Georgia rural state director for the United States Department of Agriculture
2012 Michelle Norris, Author and Award-winning Journalist
2013 Morris Dees, Civil Rights Activist and Founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center
2014 Harry Belafonte, Singer, Songwriter, Actor and Social Activist
2015 Marc Lamont Hill, Journalist, Scholar, Author and Activist
2016 Nontombi Naomi Tutu, Race and Gender Justice Activist – recording of event
2017 Amy Goodman, Journalist, Activist, Author
Issa Rae, Actress, Comedian, Writer, Director, Producer – recording of event
2018 Hill Harper, Actor, Author, Philanthropist – recording of event
2019 Tim Wise, Author and Scholar – recording of event
Julia Putnam, Detroit Principal and Writer
2020 Angela Davis, Political Activist, Author, and Professor – recording of event
*Positions and titles listed reflect status at the time of address