Award-winning Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary A. Mitchell and internationally known civil rights activist Prexy Nesbitt will discuss hope and change in light of Barack Obama becoming the first African-American U.S. president at a panel discussion Jan. 29 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the lower-level concourse of the DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson Blvd., Chicago. A reception will immediately follow the event, which is free and open to the public.

The annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium, which features Mitchell, an editorial board member at the Sun-Times, and Nesbitt, an activist, educator and expert on Africa, foreign policy and racism, is sponsored by the School for New Learning’s Africa Diaspora Committee as a kickoff to Black History Month, which begins in February.

Mitchell and Nesbitt will offer their perspectives on the impact of Obama’s presidency on the global community. Mitchell writes about a variety of topics, including community violence, the HIV/AIDS epidemic in African-American neighborhoods and racial attitudes in Chicago. She has received numerous journalism awards, including the prestigious Award of Excellence from the National Association of Black Journalists; the Studs Terkel Award from the Community Media Workshop; the Peter Lisagor Award from the Chicago Headline Club; the Phenomenal Woman Award-Media from the Expo for Today’s Black Woman; and the Humanitarian Award from the 100 Black Men of Chicago. In 2004, Crain’s Chicago Business honored Mitchell as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in the city.

For more than four decades, Nesbitt has worked as an activist and educator, strengthening progressive political and social movements in Africa, Europe and North America. He played a major role in initiating divestment campaigns for U.S. colleges while also raising awareness of the issues facing the people of South Africa. His connection to his hometown of Chicago also runs deep, having worked here as a social worker, special assistant to the late Mayor Harold Washington and a senior program officer with the MacArthur Foundation. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the Alston/Bannerman Fellowship Award, Antioch College’s Horace Mann Award for Service to Society and the King/Mandela Distinguished Service Award from the Washington Office on Africa.

The School for New Learning also will host a number of events in February as part of Black History Month. For more information about these events, please visit http://www.snl.depaul.edu/, or contact Shannon Stone-Winding at (312) 362-6367 or e-mail snlevents@depaul.edu.