The unfinished nature of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial dedicated in October in Washington, D.C., seems fitting, as our current politics similarly are incomplete, says National Public Radio reporter and author Michele Norris.
“There is the ongoing presidential race, and the opening of his memorial, where he is seen coming out of a piece of unfinished stone,” says Norris, who will deliver the 2012 MLK Symposium keynote lecture. “It suggests there is still a lot of work to do.”
Photo courtesy NPR.
The award-winning journalist is scheduled to present her talk at 10 a.m. Jan. 16 at Hill Auditorium. Norris hosted NPR’s newsmagazine All Things Considered, and was a correspondent for ABC News. In September 2010 she released her first book, “The Grace of Silence: A Memoir,” which focuses on how America talks about race following Barack Obama’s election, and her family’s racial legacy. It was called one of the best books of 2010 by The Christian Science Monitor.
In the memoir, Norris talks of her parents quiet activism, as they moved to an all-white neighborhood in Minneapolis. “I realized they were agitators in their own way,” Norris says. “They were sartorial activists. They insisted that when we went out that we always dress a certain way. They wanted us to convey self respect.”
Norris says she’ll also talk of what she’s learned through a feature on her website called The Race Card Project. The public is asked to present, in six words, their thoughts on race. “The most important thing people do when it comes to race is listen to each other,” she says. One of the submissions says, “Over the phone, all was normal.”
Norris also plans to talk about the notion of social activism. “We are living in tumultuous times. Activism is viewed as something that can be kind of loud and in your face, but what I’ve learned is activism sometimes shouts, and sometimes it whispers,” she says.
