Bakari Sellers to speak during annual MLK Celebration

Bakari Sellers
Monday, January 8, 2018

Political commentator and activist Bakari Sellers will deliver the annual UNC Charlotte Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration presentation at 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 16, in the Cone University Center, McKnight Hall. This free, public presentation is part of a week of events entitled “From #Hashtag to Action: Actualizing the Dream.”

Kim Turner, director of the Multicultural Resource Center, stated, “This year we felt it was important to select a young activist who could identify with students and who knows how to put the #hashtag into action. Sellers understands how to serve the community starting at a young age.”

At age 22, Sellers made history in 2006 when he defeated a 26-year incumbent to become the youngest state representative in the South Carolina General Assembly and the nation’s youngest African-American elected to office.  Sellers considers himself "a child of the Civil Rights movement,” as his father helped to lead the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s. He has the ability to connect with all generations.

Raised in Denmark, South Carolina, Sellers earned an undergraduate degree from Morehouse College in 2005. There, he was elected Student Government Association president and served on the college’s Board of Trustees. Sellers then attended the University of South Carolina School of Law and graduated in 2008.

Sellers has advocated for a number of issues, ranging from education and poverty to preventing domestic violence and childhood obesity. He served as a representative on President Barack Obama’s South Carolina steering committee during the 2008 election.

With leadership experience in the Democratic Leadership Council and Obama for America, Sellers is seen as voice of a younger generation and is considered a rising star within the Democratic Party. He was selected for TIME magazine’s 40 under 40 in 2010 and 2014. In 2015, he was listed on “The Root 100” list as one of the nation’s most influential African-Americans.

Since 2007, Sellers has been with the Strom Law Firm LLC, in Columbia, South Carolina. He has appeared on CNN as a political commentator discussing social justice and ethics issues. 

Other events planned for this year’s MLK Celebration include:

  • Jan. 10 -  #MLKBeyondTheHashtag
    Stop by a table in the Popp Martin Student Union Rotunda between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. to discuss actualizing MLK's dream by moving beyond the hashtag
  • Jan. 12 - #UNCCMLKDayofService                  
    Volunteer at the Second Harvest Food Bank/Jamil Niner Student Pantry; contact Sean Langley, assistant director for off-campus and volunteer outreach, slangley@uncc.edu. Student organizations are encouraged to choose service projects and share using #UNCCMLKDayofService
  • Jan. 19 - #PeaceHaven
    Join the campus community in recognizing its first dedicated interfaith meditation and reflection space from 12:30 to 2 p.m.; remarks will be at 1 p.m., Cone University Center
  • Jan. 26 - #FromHashtagtoAction
    A conversation on the state of the country regarding race relations and how to have discussions around civil discourse is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Popp Martin Student Union, Room 340GH