Television journalist, author, and human rights advocate Charlayne Hunter-Gault will present the keynote address at the 33rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration on Monday, Jan. 21. The event will be held in Gettysburg College’s Christ Chapel at 7 p.m. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

Hunter-Gault, a winner of two Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards, began her career as the first African American reporter for The New Yorker. She went on to serve as the Harlem Bureau chief for The New York Times, the Johannesburg Bureau chief and correspondent for CNN, and a national correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. She is author of New News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa’s Renaissance and In My Place, as well as her latest book, To the Mountaintop: My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement.

The event will feature musical performances by the Biglerville High School Jazz Band and 40-voice from St. James Lutheran Church. The annual Living the Dream Award will also be presented to a local resident whose life and work supports King’s dream of freedom and equality for all. The award is sponsored by the YWCA Gettysburg & Adams County and the United Way of Adams County.

A freewill offering will be collected to support the Adams County Career Aid Project, which provides need-based financial aid to Adams County students. Unlike many other educational aid programs, ACCAP provides assistance to students of all ages. Since 2004, the Career Aid Project has provided nearly $100,000 to more than 230 people to study.

Founded in 1832, Gettysburg College is a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences with a strong academic tradition that includes Rhodes Scholars, a Nobel laureate and other distinguished scholars among its alumni. The college enrolls 2,600 undergraduate students and is located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania.

Contact: Mike Baker, assistant director of communications, 717.337.6521.