Hubert "Hubie" E. Jones delivered the keynote address at the Institute's first annual MLK Celebration on the theme "Martin Luther King, Jr., What Does He Mean to Me?"

The year prior, he had joined the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) faculty as Associate Professor and Head of the Community Fellows Program. In 1977, three years after joining DUSP, Jones would leave MIT to become the first black dean of Boston University's School of Social Work, a post he held until 1993.