Jelani Cobb, an award-winning journalist and author, as well as the Dean of the Columbia Journalism School, will join RMC President Michael Hill in a conversation about the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during a week of programming celebrating the slain civil rights leader at Randolph-Macon College.

Cobb’s talk will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at Blackwell Auditorium inside the Center for the Performing Arts at 6:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Reserve your ticket here. He will also join students in Dr. Donelle Boose’s January term class earlier in the day, as well as sign books in the campus store. 

Cobb’s most recent book is Three or More Is a Riot (2025), a collection of published and original writing that reflects on how social movements have evolved over a consequential era of American history and looks forward to what lies ahead. In conversation with President Hill, he will share some of the insights that shape this new book and engage in a meaningful conversation about Dr. King’s legacy, the modern civil rights movement and what history tells us about the work we have left to do.

In addition to his role as an educator at Columbia, Cobb is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he writes on history, justice, politics, and democracy. There, he co-edited The Matter of Black Lives, a collection of The New Yorker’s most groundbreaking writing on Black history and culture in America. Cobb, a Peabody Award winner, served as a correspondent for two critically acclaimed PBS Frontline documentaries, Whose Vote Counts and Policing the Police.

His previous books include The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress and To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic. Cobb is the recipient of the Hillman Prize for Journalism and the Walter Bernstein Award from the Writer’s Guild of America. He has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, and the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Journalism Project.

Celebrating the Spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

Randolph-Macon will be hosting two other events, in addition to the conversation with Jelani Cobb, that will create opportunities to reflect on and contribute to the ongoing pursuit of justice in our society. On Monday, Jan. 19, students will be assembling care kits, with comfort items and personal essentials, for residents of the Ashland Nursing and Rehabilitation Center from 1:30–4:30 p.m. in the Dollar Tree Room inside Brock Commons.

At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 20, RMC will partner with the Pamunkey Regional Library and The Newviews Agency for an event at the Ashland Theater to screen the short film Echoes of a Dream. The documentary surfaces Dr. King’s powerful yet overlooked history in the Richmond area. A panel discussion will follow.