Steve Perry to deliver speech at MLK Convocation

CNN education correspondent and author Steve Perry will speak at Georgia State today at 4 p.m. as the keynote speaker of the 30th Anniversary Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation.

The event will pay tribute to King and his work in social justice and human rights. This year’s theme for the convocation and awards ceremony is, “The Dream Continues…Reshaping the Nation.”

Perry, best-selling author of “Push has Come to Shove,” has worked and established several programs to reduce the education gap in America. Perry founded two programs with this initiative: ConnCAP, the Connecticut Collegiate Awareness Program, at Capital Community College in 1998, and Capital Prep, one of the most successful middle/high schools in the nation, in 2004.

Perry is also the host of TV One’s Save My Son, a reality show where he works with celebrity mentors and families to transform the dangerous lives of African-American teenage boys.

The convocation will also include pioneer awards honoring Annette Lucille Hall and Barbara Hunt, who helped in the desegregation of Georgia State 50 years ago.

A reception and book signing will follow the convocation with music by Kevin Spears.

The event is free and open to the public.

Prior to this evening’s convocation, recipients of the 2013 Torch of Peace Award and the Hosea Williams Award for Community Activism will receive recognition at the MLK Awards Ceremony at 12:30 p.m. today at the Speaker’s Auditorium.