Registration open for 2026 MLK breakfast, nominations open for Social Justice Awards
Posted on: October 1, 2025; Updated on: October 1, 2025
By Collyn Taylor, collyntaylor@sc.edu, 803-777-3691
Registration is now open for USC’s annual MLK Commemorative Breakfast.
The breakfast will be 7:30-9 a.m. Jan. 16, 2026, in the Russell House Ballroom. It’s free and open for any USC student, faculty or staff as well as members of the community. You can register online on the Office of Access and Opportunity's website.
It’s a chance to reflect and celebrate the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with music and a keynote address from Harvard faculty member and award-winning author Sara Lewis.
Smith is an associate professor of African and African American Studies as well as the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities at Harvard. Her focus centers on the role of art for justice in American society, and her book The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America was a finalist for the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.
She’s been featured in multiple national publications including The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The Boston Globe. Lewis’s mainstage TED Talk “Embrace the near win” has over 3 million views.
The recipients of the annual MLK Social Justice Awards are also honored at the breakfast each year, celebrating those who courageously embody Rev. Martin Luther King's philosophies in their actions and leadership.
Those awards are presented to people at USC and in the community who exemplify King’s philosophies. There are five awards given out annually, and nominations are open now through Oct. 31:
- Faculty, staff and student awards.
- The Unsung Hero Award, an award given to a campus contract worker who is not considered faculty, staff or a student.
- The Community Partner Award, which will be given to a group not at USC doing good work in the community.