Every two years, the Keith Center welcomes a civil rights luminary to campus for a lecture on their work, passion and wisdom about today's civil rights issues. The lecture is free and open to the public, often drawing hundreds of residents from around Michigan. 

Rhonda Williams, Ph.D., Wayne State University’s Coleman A. Young Endowed Chair in the Department of African American Studies, delivered the Eighth Biennial Lecture on Nov. 9, 2023. You can watch the full program below. The lecture, titled “Footsteps & Footprints: On Race & (In) Justice," was sponsored by Comerica Bank.

Past speakers have included writer, activist, and professor Julian Bond; humanitarian, activist, actor, and singer Harry Belafonte; renowned and pioneering lawyer Constance Rice; groundbreaking scholar and the first African-American woman to receive tenure at Harvard Law School Lani Guinier; and former President of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Spencer Overton. Watch the Eighth Biennial Lecture with Dr. Williams.