Robert M. FranklinRobert M. Franklin, Candler’s newly minted James T. and Berta R. Laney Professor in Moral Leadership, will present "From Here to There: Dr. King's Vision, Our Current Reality and the Way Forward" on Wed. Jan. 21, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in room 252 of the Rita Anne Rollins Building at Emory. This is his first public lecture as Laney Professor. 

"As our country grapples with issues of ethnic and racial difference and police-community conflict, effective moral leadership is needed to enable justice with forgiveness, reconciliation and renewal,” Franklin wrote in an email announcing the lecture. 

The lecture is particularly timely, intersecting with Emory’s King Week honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and coming a month after an estimated 200 people participated in a “die-in” protest Dec. 4 on Emory’s campus in response to two grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in the deaths of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y. 

Part of the Dean’s Lecture Series at Candler, the event is free and open to the Emory community, with registration required. Register here. A boxed lunch will be provided for those who register by Jan. 15, 2015.

Franklin was installed as the inaugural Laney Professor in Moral Leadership in August 2014. He is president emeritus of Morehouse College, director of the religion department at The Chautauqua Institution, and founding director of Candler’s Black Church Studies program. Learn more about the James T. and Berta R. Laney Legacy in Moral Leadership.