Independent presidential candidate Dr. Cornell West will spend the day in Birmingham commemorating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., commemorating with a keynote address in the city’s Kelly Ingram Park.

West is set to attend a schedule of events on Monday, starting with the 38th annual MLK Day Breakfast at Birmingham Southern College.

According to a press release on West’s campaign website, the gathering will “see Dr. West engaged with local community leaders and residents, and local lawmakers, sharing his insights in the spirit of Dr. King’s legacy.”

After the breakfast, West will take a tour of the 16th Street Baptist Church with Rev. Arthur Price. Following the tour, West will host a press conference outside of the church. Other items on West’s agenda include a march to City Hall, a series of meetings, and tours of additional civil rights sites in the city.

The events will culminate with Dr. West’s keynote address at the People Over Party rally at Kelly Ingram Park at 3 p.m. This rally, according to the same release, will include various community members and leaders, and “highlight the continued importance of Dr. King’s teachings in advocating for truth, justice and love in our society, while confronting the triple evils of poverty, racism, and militarism as characterized by King.”

In a statement in the press release and on the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), West expressed his sentiments on coming to the city.

“I can’t think of a better place to commemorate MLK Day. Birmingham, like Brother Martin, is a staple of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement,” said West.

In June 2023, West announced his run for president.

“I entered the race because I think we’re at such a low point in the history of America. We’ve got to reintroduce each other to the best of ourselves, the best of our tradition,” West said in an interview on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal that month, naming a number of social justice leaders including Martin Luther King Jr., Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Dorothy Day.

“We’re at a point where there’s so much hatred. There’s so much revenge and not enough talk about love and justice and not enough talk about something bigger than ourselves and our groups and tribes,” West added. “And what is bigger? Truth. I’m in it because I’m engaged in truth and the quest for truth and the condition of truth.”

Since announcing his run, West has changed his party affiliation multiple times — first to the Green Party and then to being an independent candidate.

“People are hungry for change,” said West, in a report from the Associated Press. “They want good policies over partisan politics. We need to break the grip of the duopoly and give power to the people.”

West’s platform, according to his campaign site, includes economic, worker, and environmental justice.

An analysis from ABC news says West is courting a group President Joe Biden may struggle to attract in the upcoming election: Muslim and Arab-American voters.

West has openly criticized the way Biden’s administration has handled the Israel-Hamas war.

“We got to do something,” West said at a December rally in Dearborn, Mich., reported POLITICO. “That’s why I’m here to tell the world and especially straight to Gaza, where they’re dealing with a genocidal assault. We believe that a Palestinian baby has the same value as any baby in the world.”