Galloway, N.J. — Philadelphia activist Kenneth Salaam, also known as Freedom Smitty, will be the featured speaker at the 23rd annual Fannie Lou Hamer Human and Civil Rights Symposium at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 6 at Stockton University’s Performing Arts Center.

According to his website, Salaam began his activism at the age of 14 as he was deeply impacted by the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. At 16, he left high school to become a member of Cecil B. Moore’s direct-action team, known as the Young Militants. Some of his milestones since include his participation in the desegregation of Girard College, protesting alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Betty Shabazz and Fannie Lou Hamer, and joining King in the James Meredith March.

He’s also organized food caravans, stood firm against Ku Klux Klan rallies and co-led national memories for Malcom X. Today, he talks to schools and other organizations about the civil rights movement, mass incarceration, youth empowerment, faith and freedom and how to build power in marginalized communities.

Camden jazz trumpeter Arnetta Johnson will perform before Salaam’s speech. Johnson has performed with Beyonce at the Super Bowl in 2016 and jazz greats such as Pleasantville native Ralph Peterson Jr., Christian McBride, Geri Allen and Terri Lyne Carrington.

Hamer was among the most significant participants in the struggle launched in the latter half of the 20th century to achieve freedom and social justice for African Americans.

Her historic presence in Atlantic City at the 1964 Democratic National Convention brought national prominence with her testimony before the convention’s credentials committee. She sought to prevent the seating of the all-white Mississippi delegation. While this effort failed, the Democratic Party agreed that in the future no delegation would be seated from a state where anyone was illegally denied the vote. Roughly a year later, the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed. 

Stockton honors Hamer by inviting influential keynote speakers annually to inspire and inform students. Past speakers include Ras Baraka (2025), Ndaba Mandela (2024), Shirley N. Webber (2023), Keisha N. Blain (2022), Bettina L. Love (2021).

The symposium is sponsored by the Africana Studies Program, Unified Black Students Society, the School of Arts and Humanities, the Office of the Provost, the Council of Black Faculty and Staff, the Office of the President, the Office of Title VI, Title VII, and Title IX and the Office of Student Development.