BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Find Local//findlocal.community//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:19700308T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:19701101T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:176021b7-7787-49f8-84b7-0623913875c9@findlocal.community
DTSTAMP:20261015T140624Z
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20270125T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20270125T203000
SUMMARY:35th Annual Martin Luther King\, Jr. Convocation
DESCRIPTION:Janai Nelson is President and Director-Counsel of the Legal D
 efense Fund (LDF)\, the nation’s premier civil rights law organization a
 dvancing racial justice and equality. Nelson has spent nearly three deca
 des fighting for racial justice as a renowned litigator and prolific leg
 al scholar with specific expertise in election law. In October 2025\, Ne
 lson argued Louisiana v. Callais before the United States Supreme Court\
 , defending equitable congressional representation for Black voters in L
 ouisiana and the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Nel
 son was also one of the lead counsels in Veasey v. Abbott (2018)\, a suc
 cessful federal challenge to Texas’s voter ID law\, and the lead archite
 ct of NUL v. Trump (2020)\, which sought to declare the Trump administra
 tion’s executive order banning diversity\, equity\, and inclusion traini
 ng in the workplace unconstitutional before it was rescinded. Nelson for
 merly served as Associate Director-Counsel\, as a member of LDF’s litiga
 tion and policy teams\, and in various other leadership capacities at LD
 F. Prior to joining LDF in June 2014\, Nelson was Associate Dean for Fac
 ulty Scholarship and Associate Director of the Ronald H. Brown Center fo
 r Civil Rights and Economic Development at St. John’s University School 
 of Law\, where she was also a full professor of law and served on the la
 w school’s Senior Leadership Team. Before entering academia\, Nelson was
  a Fulbright Scholar at the Legal Resources Center in Accra\, Ghana. Nel
 son began practicing law as the 1998 recipient of an NAACP LDF/Fried Fra
 nk Fellowship. A graduate of NYU and UCLA School of Law\, Nelson clerked
  for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Theodore McMillian and U.S. District Ju
 dge David H. Coar. Nelson regularly speaks as a civil rights\, constitut
 ional law\, and election law expert in the media and at conferences and 
 symposia nationwide. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Le
 adership Conference for Civil and Human Rights and a Trustee of the Rock
 efeller Brothers Fund. Nelson’s leadership has been recognized nationall
 y\, and she is the recipient of numerous awards\, including The Root 100
 \, the New York University Distinguished Alumni Award\, the M. Ashley Di
 ckerson Diversity Award from the National Association of Women Lawyers (
 NAWL)\, the Metropolitan Black Bar Association’s (MBBA) Public Servant o
 f the Year Award\, and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Suffolk Un
 iversity Law School. - The event will also be live-streamed on YouTube\,
  with closed captioning provided. This event is part of the Peace & Just
 ice Bunting Speaker Series and is free and open to the public\, although
  advance registration is encouraged. Celebrating its 34th year\, the Mar
 tin Luther King\, Jr. Convocation is an opportunity for Loyola and the B
 altimore community to come together and launch the spring semester and N
 ew Year with a shared inquiry into issues of social justice\, politics\,
  spirituality\, and the legacies of race and racial justice in America. 
 The convocation is co-sponsored by the Office of the President\, Office 
 of Equity and Inclusion\, Office of Peace & Justice\, the Karson Institu
 te for Race\, Peace & Social Justice\, Messina\, and the African and Afr
 ican American Studies Program. Persons with disabilities who may require
  special services should contact the Office of Disability and Accessibil
 ity Services at 410-617-2062 (TDD) or 410-617-2141 at least 48 hours bef
 ore the event. Copy Link\n\nTickets: https://bridge.loyola.edu/OEI/rsvp?
 id=2158729\n\nhttps://findlocal.community/event/176021b7-7787-49f8-84b7-
 0623913875c9
LOCATION:Loyola University Maryland\, Baltimore\, MD
URL:https://findlocal.community/event/176021b7-7787-49f8-84b7-0623913875c
 9
STATUS:CONFIRMED
SEQUENCE:0
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR