2023 - Jelani Cobb
Jelani Cobb, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, journalist, historian and dean of Columbia University's Journalism School delivered the keynote address.
2021 - Nikole Hannah-Jones
Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of the landmark 1619 Project, was the joint keynote speaker for the 2021 virtual Media & Civil Rights History Symposium and the College of Information and Communications Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Research Symposium.
2019 - Al Letson
The 2019 Media & Civil Rights History Symposium and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Southeast Colloquium sparked dialogue about the importance of journalism and the evolving landscape of the industry. The keynote speaker was Al Letson, host of Reveal's Peabody Award-winning public radio program and podcast showcasing investigative stories.
2017 - Stanley Nelson Jr.
MacArthur genius filmmaker Stanley Nelson Jr. highlighted the fourth biennial Media and Civil Rights History Symposium. Nelson is a civil rights documentarian of the triple Emmy Award-winning "Freedom Riders" (2011), "The Black Press: Soldiers without Swords" (1998), "The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution" (2015), and "Tell Them We Are Rising," an upcoming work on historically black colleges and universities that includes South Carolina colleges.
2015 - Peniel Joseph
"Black Power, Imagination and the Media” was the theme for the third biennial Media & Civil Rights History Symposium held by the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. “The theme is intentionally expanding the time frame of civil rights research, ” said Christopher Frear, a journalism doctoral student and the three-day symposium’s co-director.
2013 - Katherine Mellen Charron
Katherine Mellen Charron, author and associate professor of history at North Carolina State University, keynote address on her book, "Freedom's Teacher: The Life of Septima Clark,"
2011 - Isabel Wilkerson
Isabel Wilkerson was the keynote speaker at the 36th annual AEJMC Southeast Colloquium. She spoke on the 15-year venture of writing the award-winning The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, a story centered on three African-Americans who left the south in hopes of a better life in the north, east and west.