STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Starkville native now directing Vanderbilt University's African-American studies program will be the featured speaker Monday [Jan. 17] for the Martin Luther King Day Unity Breakfast co-sponsored by Starkville and Mississippi State.
Lucius T. Outlaw Jr. will head a 7:30 a.m. public program in the Bost Extension auditorium. "Remember! Celebrate! Act! A Day On, Not a Day Off" is the title of his remarks.
The 11th annual community celebration of the slain civil rights leader's birthday is jointly organized by the university and the Greater Starkville Development Partnership.
Outlaw is a 1967 magna cum laude philosophy graduate of Nashville's Fisk University, where he was selected for the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He also completed a doctorate in philosophy from Boston College in 1972.
During his long academic career, Outlaw has held the academic designations of T. Wistar Brown Professor of Philosophy at Haverford (Pa.) College and David S. Nelson Professor at Boston College. In addition to also teaching at Fisk, Morgan State University and Hamilton College, he has been a visiting professor at several other schools.
At Vanderbilt, Outlaw's teaching and research include racial matters in U.S. sociopolitical life, African-American philosophy and African philosophy. His work has been featured in Philosophical Forum, Journal of Social Philosophy, Man and World, The Journal of Ethics, and other academic publications.
"On Race and Philosophy," a collection of his essays, was published in 1996 by Routledge Taylor and Francis Group of Oxford, England. Outlaw also has a forthcoming book of essays tentatively titled "In Search of a Critical Social Theory of Race."
In addition to Outlaw's keynote address, the local MLK Day tribute will include a performance by MSU's Black Voices Gospel Choir.
For more information, contact Carson Cook at (662) 325-2493.