2005 Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation

Patricia J. Williams, a professor of Law at Columbia University School and an award-winning writer who has explored issues of racial inequity, politics, law and feminism in her work, delivered the 12th annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Convocation address at Loyola College in Maryland on Wednesday, January 19, 2005. The Convocation began at 7 p.m. in McGuire Hall on the College's North Charles Street campus, followed by a question-and-answer session, a reception and a book signing.

Williams' book titled The Alchemy of Race and Rights was named one of the 25 best books of 1991 by the Voice Literary Supplement and one of the "feminist classics of the last 20 years" that "literally changed women's lives," by Ms. magazine's 20th Anniversary Edition. Her newest book, Open House: Of Family, Friends, Food, Piano Lessons and a Search for a Room of My Own, is a collection of personal stories, essays, anecdotes, and autobiography.

In 2000, Williams was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Foundation fellowship - commonly referred to as the "genius grant." According to the citation, "her voice has created a new form of legal writing and scholarship that integrates personal narrative, critical and literary theory, traditional legal doctrine, and empirical and sociological research."  She also was the first winner of the Ida B. Wells Journalism Award in 2002, given to a journalist who exemplifies courage in reporting on racial inequity and injustice in the United States, for her column in The Nation.