MLK Regional Celebration

2025 Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Celebration

Nontombi Naomi Tutu
Race & Gender Justice Activist

Wednesday, January 22, 2025, at 7 p.m.
Malcolm Field Theatre, Curtiss Hall

This event is open to all, and no advance registration is necessary.

The challenges of growing up black and female in apartheid South Africa have been the foundation of the Rev. Nontombi Naomi Tutu’s life as a motivational speaker and activist for human rights. Those experiences taught her that our whole human family loses when we accept situations of oppression, and how the teaching and preaching of hate and division injure us all.

She started her public speaking as a college student at Berea College in Kentucky in the 1970s when she was invited to speak at churches, community groups and colleges and universities about her experiences growing up in apartheid South Africa. She has since become a much sought-after speaker to a wide variety of business associations, professional conferences, elected officials and church and civic organizations.

The Rev. Tutu knew from the time she was young that she wanted to help change the lives of others and make a difference in the world. But she wanted to carve her own path. And that she has done.

This event will feature:

• Keynote Address — the Rev. Nontombi Naomi Tutu
• Presentation of the MLK Scholarship Awards
• Presentation of the Regional Drum Major Awards