Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis and Noam Sandweiss-Back to keynote and Amanda Jones to present at 27th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Observance and Sunrise Celebration

CHICAGO – Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis, Director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary, joins Noam Sandweiss-Back, an organizer and writer born in Jerusalem and raised in New Jersey, for the first-ever joint keynote address at the 27th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Observance and Sunrise Celebration. The 2026 Celebration will be streamed live on YouTube, starting on Thursday, January 15, at 10:00 a.m. Central Time. The livestream will remain available for viewing on YouTube after. 

Rev. Dr. Theoharis is also co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. She is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and teaches at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Rev. Dr. Theoharis is the co-author of "You Only Get What You’re Organized to Take: Lessons from the Movement to End Poverty," which is the featured book for this year’s celebration. Rev. Dr. Theoharis has been organizing among poor and low-income communities for 30 years with organizations such as the National Union of the Homeless, the National Welfare Rights Union, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Domestic Workers United and more. Raised in a family committed to social justice, civil liberties and human rights, she has been involved in the movement for her whole life.

Collaborating with Rev. Dr. Theoharis for this event's first-ever joint keynote is Noam Sandweiss-Back, co-author of "You Only Get What You’re Organized to Take: Lessons from the Movement to End Poverty." Sandweiss-Back has spent a decade working among poor and low-income communities, including with the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice and the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

Call-to-Action speaker Amanda Jones is a 25-year educator, school librarian, and a grassroots organizer in Louisiana on the frontlines fighting against censorship in libraries. She is the 2021 Librarian of the Year as presented by School Library Journal, a 2021 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, and the 2020 Louisiana School Librarian of the Year. She is the Louisiana Chapter Councilor to ALA, on both the ALA and LLA Intellectual Freedom Committees, and is the Legislative Chair for LLA to help combat anti-library legislation in Louisiana. Jones has won numerous intellectual freedom awards and is a founding member of Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship. She is the author of "That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America" and she is featured in the award-winning documentary "The Librarians" by Academy Award nominated director Kim A Snyder. Jones was recently recognized as one of the world’s most influential rising stars on the TIME100 Next list.

The annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Observance and Sunrise Celebration commemorates Dr. King's legacy and recognizes the connection between his life's work and the library world. This year’s readings are taken from Dr. King’s book “Stride Toward Freedom” and his first and final public sermons: Address to the First Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) Mass Meeting and I See the Promised Land, delivered the night before his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. 

The MLK Celebration Task Force Co-Chairs include Andrew (Sekou) Jackson, LaJuan Pringle, and April Sheppard. The 2026 Celebration is made possible through the support of ALA's Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Task Force of the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table, and the Black Caucus of the ALA. . Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis and Noam Sandweiss-Back’s participation is generously provided by Beacon Press. 

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