Researcher and documentarian Wendy Ellis will serve as keynote speaker for the 2025 King Legacy Celebration at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center on Jan. 20.
The 20th annual celebration of the life and leadership of civil rights icon Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will include a call to action and live performances. The centerpiece of the day is a morning speech and afternoon programming led by an inspiring figure in the field of racial and social justice.
Today, Ellis serves as the inaugural director of the Institute for Racial, Ethnic and Socioeconomic Equity and the founding director of the Center for Community Resilience at George Washington University. In this role, she supports research focused on eradicating racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic inequity.
In its announcement, the Freedom Center credited Ellis with inspiring a global “resilience movement” by developing tools, frameworks and research methods to address systemic inequities that contribute to improving social and health disparities.
“Dr. King and his colleagues knew racial injustice in this country was not by accident; it was by design,” said Woodrow Keown, Jr., president and COO of the Freedom Center.
“And though they lacked the data and the technology to eradicate them at their root, they carried the torch for people like Dr. Ellis and a new generation to expose these systems undeniably,” he continued. “These leaders will now leverage resources to dismantle these structures of injustice. They simply need to take the torch.”
20th annual King Legacy Celebration
The King Legacy Celebration will start with a continental breakfast, providing a chance for guests to mingle before the program begins.
Following the morning keynote address, the Freedom Center will offer free admission for the day and an afternoon program featuring Ellis. This will include opportunities for attendees to engage and take away practical steps to address inequities in their own communities.
Her Building Community Resilience collaborative and Resilience Catalysts networks provide platforms for partners to align resources, programs, and initiatives with community-based efforts to address adverse childhood experiences and adverse community environments.
In 2022, Ellis produced the documentary “America’s Truth: Cincinnati,” which explores how structural racism led to inequitable outcomes in four Black neighborhoods in Cincinnati – Avondale, the West End, Lincoln Heights, and Kennedy Heights.
The documentary documents nearly 200 years of housing, education, and public safety policy, telling the story of how unjust policies were intentionally designed to drive inequitable outcomes by race and place. The film follows Ellis’ team’s approach to center the conversation on structural racism and galvanize a resilience movement to foster equity through systems and policy change.
Ellis received the Vincent J. Filetti Distinguished Scholar Award in 2024 for her visionary leadership in fostering community resilience to prevent childhood adversity.
Doors will open at 8 a.m., with performances and the keynote presentation starting at 8:30 a.m. Both in-person attendance and livestream broadcast options will be available. Tickets and program information are available at freedomcenter.org/klc25.
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