Shaw University’s MLK Day speaker known for social impact expertise

RALEIGH — When the Rev. Dr. Melvin Miller delivers his keynote remarks during this year’s Shaw University Martin Luther King Jr. Day Service, he’ll leave his footprints in the path forged by torchbearers who over the years arrived on campus to fan flames for equality and agency.

The 11 a.m. Jan. 18 service on campus in the Thomas J. Boyd Chapel is free and open to the public. Miller’s theme is “Recapturing an Intergenerational Vision Within the African American Community.”

Miller, the senior pastor of Progressive Baptist Church in St. Paul, Minn., is a thought leader whose subject-matter expertise addresses social impacts influenced by employment, education, youth enrichment and health, plus both civic and community engagement. He’s the ideal speaker for the university and its surrounding community, according to Shaw University Chaplain Lamont Johnson, Ph.D.

“This year’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Service pays homage to the social engagement of Dr. King and his fellow freedom fighters. We are in anticipation of a power-packed, yet uplifting, message of hope, as well as civic and community engagement, from  Dr. Miller,” Johnson said. “Reverend Miller has a proven track record of motivating and inspiring audiences to be change agents within their communities.”

Miller leans into the urgent need for Black institutions to maintain their historical records and identity through archives and published works, something he probed in “It’s Black and White: An Investigation into the Founding of Three Post-Civil War Black Colleges.” Shaw University is featured in that dissertation.

The academic dean of the Minnesota State Baptist Convention, Miller’s scholarship focuses on the role and relevance of Black Christian thought in the social and political evolution of American society and the world. Miller is also president of the St. Paul Black Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance in Minnesota. 

Shaw University has long been associated with civic and community engagement for social impact. An April 1960 meeting at the university to build upon the momentum of student sit-ins protesting the unfair treatment of Black people led to the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC. 

The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, is among those who’ve keynoted the Shaw University Martin Luther King Jr. Day Service. Other speakers have included Dr. Sharrelle Barber, a social epidemiologist and scholar-activist whose research focuses on the intersection of place, race and health and examines the role of structural racism in shaping health, racial and ethnic health inequities among Black communities in the United States and Brazil. She is the daughter of the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, a North Carolina-based social-justice activist.