Chancellor’s Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Luncheon

Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, and journalist Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is an acclaimed cultural critic and institution builder. Professor Gates is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Among his dozens of books are the recent New York Times bestsellers Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow and The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song. He has also produced and hosted an array of documentary films. The Black Church (PBS) and Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches (HBO), which he executive produced, each received Emmy nominations. His latest history series for PBS is Making Black America: Through the Grapevine. Finding Your Roots, Gates’s groundbreaking genealogy and genetics series, is now in its tenth season on PBS.

Professor Gates has received countless awards and honors, including a George Polk Award for his social commentary in The New York Times, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Chicago Tribune Literary Award for lifetime achievement, and the prestigious Gold Medal from the National Institute of Social Sciences, among many others. Gates recently (July 2024) received the coveted Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, which recognizes outstanding achievement by an African American.

Alvin Books Kansas Citian Inspiration Award

This award is given to an everyday Kansas Citian recognizing their good works and dedication to community betterment by promoting the values of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Bridgette Williams, a respected force in the region’s construction industry, serves as Executive Director of the Heavy Constructors Association of Greater Kansas City. Williams is the first female and first African American to lead the 68-year-old association, and among the first in the country to head a major contractor’s association.

MCC is proud to present this prestigious award to Ms. Williams for her commitment to the Greater Kansas City community.

Event Emcee

Nick has led the public affairs division of Kansas City’s PBS affiliate since 1999. He is best known as the host of the weekly primetime public affairs program, Kansas City Week in Review.

His work has been recognized with five regional Emmy Awards. Nick is a former BBC radio news reporter. He was born and raised in Port Talbot, South Wales, a steel town that also produced actors Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins. Prior to joining Kansas City PBS, Nick served as news director for KANU, the NPR affiliate in Lawrence, KS and was Statehouse Bureau Chief for Kansas Public Radio in Topeka, KS.