The agenda of "Speaking to the People: Black Academia and Social Activism" is to bring academic research on the contemporary black experience into the real lives of every Atlantan and serve as a catalyst for informed and thoughtful social action. This series of ongoing public lectures, in collaboration with Georgia State University’s Department of African-American Studies, has freed these important dialogues from exclusive on-campus university venues.

The following lectures are examples of the often marginalized and unconventional voices within the academic community that have been a part of this ongoing lecture series; When Black Lives Matter: A Historical Perspective, facilitated by Dr. Evelyn Higginbotham; Muslim, Woman, and Student In the Contemporary U.S. South, facilitated by Dr. Maha Marouan; Why Black Lives Matter, facilitated by Dr. Melina Abdullah, The Psychic Hold of Slavery, facilitated by Dr. Soyica Colbert.

This unique library-university partnership has allowed the Auburn Avenue Research Library and Georgia State University to create public safe spaces for nuanced dialogues on race. This initiative is an engaging public resource in the Atlanta community providing an action-oriented, progressive response to racially based societal inequities, while staying true to the mission of a traditional research library. This successful collaboration is expanding to include other community organizations, scholars and local institutions of high learning.