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2017 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon – A Celebration of Dr. King’s Birthday and His Legacy
Over 860 guests celebrated Dr. King’s legacy at KCBA’s Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon on January 13, 2017, at the Washington State Convention Center.
The 2017 speaker was Eugene Robinson: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Washington Post Journalist & MSNBC Contributor. Eugene Robinson uses his twice-weekly column in the Washington Post to pick American society apart and then put it back together again in unexpected and revelatory new ways. In his three decades at the Washington Post, Robinson has been city hall reporter, city editor, foreign correspondent in Buenos Aires and London, foreign editor and assistant managing editor in charge of the paper’s award winning Style section. He has written books about race in Brazil and music in Cuba, covered a heavyweight championship fight, witnessed riots in Philadelphia and a murder trial in the deepest Amazon, sat with Presidents and Dictators and the Queen of England, thrusted and parried with hair-proud politicians from sea to shining sea.
Luncheon attendees were treated to a terrific musical performance by the Sounds of the Northwest Choir. After the event, Eugene Robinson greeted over 100 attendees and signed copies of his books.
In addition to the generous sponsorship support provided by many local law firms and organizations, the King County Bar Association gratefully acknowledges the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon Committee for their tireless work in making this program such a successful community event: Hon. Richard A. Jones, Co-Chair, Karen W. Murray, Co-Chair, Erica E. Buckley, Lisa Castilleja, Phillip H. Ginsberg, Justo Gonzalez, Hon. Charles V. Johnson, (Ret.), Randolph J. Johnson, Kerry J. Keefe, James E. Lobsenz, Gregory M. Miller, Kevin A. Peck, Burns Petersen, Hon. Catherine D. Shaffer, Leann Wagele, Pallavi Mehta Wahi, and Diana Zottman.
Pictures From The Event
The 2017 Annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon
Friday, January 13, 2017 | Noon - 1:15pm
(Registration will open at 11:30 a.m)
$50 General Admission
25 Students & Law Clerks
$500 Table for 10
Washington State Convention Center
705 Pike Street
Seattle, Washington
98101
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Featuring: Eugene Robinson
• Author
• Washington Post Columnist
Eugene Robinson uses his twice-weekly column in The Washington Post to pick American society apart and then put it back together again in unexpected and revelatory new ways. To do this job of demolition and reassembly, Robinson relies on a large and varied tool kit: energy, curiosity, elegant writing and the wide-ranging experience of a life that took him from childhood in the segregated South—on what they called the “colored” side of the tracks—to the heights of American journalism. His remarkable story-telling ability has won him wide acclaim, most notably as the winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for his commentary on the 2008 presidential race that resulted in the election of America’s first African-American president.
In his three decades at The Washington Post, Robinson has been city hall reporter, city editor, foreign correspondent in Buenos Aires and London, foreign editor and assistant managing editor in charge of the paper’s award winning Style section. He has written books about race in Brazil and music in Cuba, covered a heavyweight championship fight, witnessed riots in Philadelphia and a murder trial in the deepest Amazon, sat with Presidents and Dictators and the Queen of England, thrusted and parried with hair-proud politicians from sea to shining sea, handicapped three editions of American Idol, acquired fluent Spanish and passable Portuguese and even, thanks to his two sons, come to an uneasy truce with hip-hop culture.
Robinson was born and raised in Orangeburg, SC. He remembers the culminating years of the Civil Rights Movement—the “Orangeburg Massacre,” a 1968 incident in which police fired on students protesting a segregated bowling alley and killed three unarmed young men, took place within sight of his house just a few hundred yards away. He was educated at Orangeburg High School, where he was one of a handful of black students on the previously all white campus; and the University of Michigan, where during his senior year he was the first black student to be named co-editor-in-chief of the award-winning student newspaper, The Michigan Daily.
Robinson joined The Washington Post in 1980 as city hall reporter, covering the first term of Washington’s larger-than-life mayor, Marion Barry. For the first time since Orangeburg, race became a dominant issue in Robinson’s life—as city hall reporter, he was the de facto emissary of a powerful white institution, The Washington Post, to an ambitious, race conscious, black-run government of a majority-black city. There he learned another important lesson: Man-in-the-middle is never a comfortable role, but sometimes it’s a necessary one.
In January 1999, Robinson became an assistant managing editor of The Post in charge of the Style section—where he learned that hip-hop and American Idol are as relevant to people’s lives, in their way, as the “serious” news that gets reported on the front page. His appointment as associate editor and columnist took place January 1, 2005.In 2010, Robinson was elected to the Pulitzer Prize Board. He is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the NABJ Hall of Fame. His second book, Last Dance in Havana: The Final Days of Fidel and the Start of the New Cuban Revolution—an examination of contemporary Cuba, looking at the society through the vibrant music scene—was published in 2004.
Robinson is a regular contributor to MSNBC. He lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife, Avis, an artist and collector.