Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Monday, January 19, 2026
12:00 - 2:15pm EST
Join us for an immersive 2-hour experience exploring the ongoing struggle to hold America accountable to its founding promise—that all people are created equal and entitled to fundamental rights. Through storytelling, readings, and music, participants will encounter the voices and actions of people who fought for civil rights and challenged the nation to live up to its ideals.
The event starts with a keynote discussion with Dr. Keith Reeves - Professor of Political Science, Swarthmore College’s Lang Center for Civic & Social Responsibility.
Music by the Black Breath Collective. Additional participants to be announced.
About the Panelists:
Professor of Political Science, Swarthmore College’s Lang Center for Civic & Social Responsibility
Professor of Political Science, Swarthmore College’s Lang Center for Civic & Social Responsibility
Dr. Keith Reeves is a professor of political science in the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility at Swarthmore College. For more than a decade now, Reeves has headed a multi-faceted research project that examines the alarming incarceration rates among Black males and the wide-ranging impact of their return on inner-city families and neighborhoods. Moreover, he has taught and mentored incarcerated men in several jails and prisons in Pennsylvania for nearly 20 years now. And under the auspices of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program headquartered at Temple University, he founded Swarthmore's in-prison education program in 2012. Professor Reeves is nearing completion of a book that examines mass incarceration among young Black males and its devastating impact on urban neighborhoods.
We strive to make the penitentiary and our site, programs, and exhibits accessible to all visitors. Click here to learn more about accessibility and accommodations at ESPHS.
