Harold Ford to Speak at UB's MLK Commemoration Event

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Harold E. Ford Jr., chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, a nonprofit corporation promoting a moderate/conservative platform within the Democratic Party, will be the keynote speaker for the 32nd Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Event at the University at Buffalo.

It will be held at 8 p.m. Feb. 7 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts on the North (Amherst) Campus. Lecture sponsor is the UB Minority Faculty and Staff Association.

Described by President Bill Clinton as "the walking, living embodiment of where America ought to go in the 21st century," Ford built a reputation on Capitol Hill as a consensus builder while serving on the House Budget Committee, the House Committee on Financial Services and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Known to his colleagues as a fiscal watchdog conservative, he played an active role as a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate and fiscally conservative Democrats seeking middle-ground, bipartisan answers to the current challenges facing the nation. While in Congress, he was also a member of the New Democrat Coalition and the Congressional Black Caucus. In 2006, Ford lost the closest Senate race in Tennessee history to Republican Bob Corker by less than three percentage points.

In addition to heading the Democratic Leadership Council, he serves as a visiting professor of public policy at Vanderbilt University and is vice chairman and senior policy advisor for Merrill Lynch & Co.

Tickets are available at the CFA box office and at all Ticketmaster outlets, including Ticketmaster.com

For more information, visit http://www.specialevents.buffalo.edu.