Activist and recent University of Missouri graduate Payton Head will give the Black Heritage keynote address.

Head, former president of the Missouri Students Association and an activist in the #ConcernedStudent1950 movement, will give a talk titled “Why All Black Lives Must Matter” at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16 in the Bronco Student Center’s Ursa Major. The African American Student Center is presenting the free event, in conjunction with, the Black Faculty & Staff Association and the Pride Alliance.

At the University of Missouri, Head represented 28,000 as student government president. After the 2015 police officer-involved of teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Head spearheaded conversations about improving race relations at his university.

He wrote a Facebook post recounting his experiences with racism at the University of Missouri that went viral and ignited students to fight for a more inclusive campus. The #ConcernedStudent1950 movement was born, which involved campus protests and led to the resignation of the chancellor and the University of Missouri system president in fall 2015.

Teen Vogue featured Head in the story “How Three Students Changed the Course of History at Their Schools.” A member of the LGBTQ community, Head facilitates dialogue on the intersection of racial and sexual identities. The NAACP Image Award winner has presented at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, addressed the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and helped organize the first White House Convening for Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Ed event.

Co-author of the U.S. Department of Education’s guide to assist student leaders with addressing inclusion, Head has been featured in nation media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, ABC, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

The talk will be followed by a Q & A session. For more information, contact Tashiana Bryant at tsbryant@cpp.edu or 909-869-3642.