25th Annual MLK Celebration Keynote

Kweisi Mfume is the former president and chief executive officer of the NAACP and former US Representative.

Associate Dean Leo M. Osgood Jr., chair of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee, said, "Congressman Mfume is an outstanding speaker with an impressive background. I'm sure his speech will help make the 25th celebration a memorable event."

Mr. Mfume, whose West African name means "conquering son of kings," resigned as the US representative from Maryland's seventh Congressional district in 1996 when he was named to the NAACP positions. He had been a member of Congress for 10 years and chaired the joint Senate-House Economic Committee.

He also served on the Ethics Committee, the Banking and Financial Services Committee, the Committee on Education and the Small Business Committee, and he chaired the Congressional Black Caucus for two years. Before he was elected to Congress, Mr. Mfume was a Baltimore city councilman for seven years.

A native of Baltimore, Mr. Mfume graduated cum laude in 1976 from Morgan State University, where he edited the student newspaper and headed the Black Student Union. He also holds a master's degree in international studies from Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. Mfume serves on the Morgan State University Board of Regents, the Senior Advisory Committee of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Meyor-hoff National Advisory Board of the University of Maryland, and the Board of Trustees for the Enterprise Foundation. He is also a member of Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

Mr. Mfume is the second high-level NAACP executive to address the MIT breakfast.

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