The Dallas Institute’s 14th Annual MLK, Jr. Symposium will feature James Forman, Jr., author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in America. He will speak on mass incarceration and its impact on people of color.

The symposium will include local panelists Brittany Barnett, Sharanda Jones, Joyce King, and Brian Williams, along with a dramatic performance by Akin Babatunde, and the music of Men in Worship ensemble.

Forman, a former public defender, is a leading critic of mass incarceration and its disproportionate impact on people of color. He has written numerous law review articles, in addition to op-eds and essays for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Nation, and The Washington Post. His critically acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning book explores how decisions made by black leaders, often with the best of intentions, contributed to disproportionate incarceration of black and brown people.