The 2023 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration keynote speaker was Dr. Jelani Cobb.

Jelani Cobb is a staff writer at The New Yorker, writing on race, history, justice, politics, and democracy, as well as Columbia University's Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism and next Dean of Columbia Journalism School.

He recently co-edited The Matter of Black Lives, a collection of The New Yorker's most ground-breaking writing on Black history and culture in America, featuring the work of legendary writers like James Baldwin and Toni Morrison.