This year’s virtual Martin Luther King Jr. 讲座由Yamiche阿尔金德主持, an award-winning political journalist who has spent most of her career covering how political policy impacts the everyday American.
Alcindor is the White House correspondent for PBS 新闻Hour, Moderator of Washington Week and an 美国全国广播公司 and 微软全国有线广播电视公司 Political Contributor. She often appears on shows like Morning Joe, Meet the Press and Andrea Mitchell Reports.
The daughter of Haitian immigrants who met while attending Boston College, Alcindor has written extensively on the intersection of race and politics. She has covered the impact of former President Donald Trump’s politics on the working-class, immigration and breaking news from Africa, 中东和亚洲.
“Being Haitian-American for me, whenever I walk into the White House it is a big deal. I can’t even imagine what my grandparents would think about their granddaughter, who only a few decades after they arrived here, is now in the White House questioning the President of the United States,阿尔辛多说.
Alcindor is the recipient of the White House Correspondents’ Association Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage, as well as the 2020 Journalist of the Year Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. She earned a master’s degree in broadcast news and documentary filmmaking from New York University and a bachelor’s in English, Government and African American studies from Georgetown University.
The 2022 lecture was delivered in a question-and-answer format, in a dialogue between Alcindor and Glen Rice, a reporter who has been at the Kansas City Star 34 years. Rice himself has received numerous national, regional and local journalism awards for investigations, feature writing and breaking news coverage.
The hour-long discussion covered a wide range of topics. Below are a few questions from the discussion.
问题: 博士是怎么. 金的遗产激励着你? How did his quest for equity inspire you as a journalist?
阿尔金德: He inspired me because he was someone who wasn’t afraid of just telling it like it is. He wasn’t afraid of pushing America to be better. He was there on the Selma bridge pushing people to recognize the humanity of Black people. I think about some of the quotes that he said that really stick with me, like what he said about knowing the character of someone during times of challenge and controversy. I often think about those words because I believe right now, we are living through times of challenge and controversy.
Q: 你从哪里得到你的新闻?
A: As a Miami native, I think about local news first. Supporting local news is so incredibly important. These are the people that are going to tell you where your tax dollars are going, whether the mayor is stealing your money, or if you have a Jeffrey Epstein in your backyard, 他将会揭开真相, 《世界杯赌场盘口》的案例. I read the Miami Herald, the Sun-Sentinel, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post. 在全国范围内, 我读《世界杯赌博盘口》, 《世界杯赌博盘口》, 至于看电视，我看BBC, 美国全国广播公司, 微软全国有线广播电视公司, 美国有线电视新闻网, 还有一点福克斯新闻.
关于马丁·路德·金. 系列讲座
Beginning with the Rosa Parks 讲座 on Social Justice and Activism in 2007, and annually since 2009 with the Martin Luther King Jr. 系列讲座, the Division of 多元化和包容性 honors individuals' tremendous contributions to furthering civil rights by bringing national thought leaders to campus, who provide insight and advocacy to current civil rights issues on education, economic and justice system inequalities.
The goal of the lecture is to encourage UMKC students, 工作人员, faculty and the Kansas City community to build upon the courageous, non-violent activism of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., and to increase awareness of present-day avenues to advocate for civil rights through free thought, 行动与奖学金.