Community invited to event featuring keynote speaker Judge Tjuana Byrd Manning
The University of Central Arkansas will host its annual MLK Prayer Breakfast on Friday, Jan. 16, in the Ronnie Williams Student Center Ballroom 205 featuring keynote speaker Judge Tjuana Byrd Manning. The breakfast is held each year to celebrate the spiritual legacy and moral courage that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. brought to the social justice movement.
A breakfast buffet will begin at 8:15 a.m., with the official program beginning at 9 a.m. The theme for the event is “Roots of the Dream, Fruits of the Future.”
Tjuana Byrd Manning will present the keynote address. Byrd Manning serves on the Pulaski County Circuit Court, Division 8, bringing to the bench a deep commitment to justice and community shaped by her upbringing in North Carolina and Arkansas. A graduate of the UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, she began her legal career as a public defender and later focused her private practice on juvenile justice. Throughout her career, Byrd Manning has served as an advocate for children and families, earning appointments to state boards addressing child welfare and juvenile issues, including The State Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board, the Arkansas Supreme Court Commission on Children, Youth, and Families Racial Justice Taskforce, Women’s Foundation of Arkansas and the Arkansas Commission on Juvenile Justice.
Byrd Manning has received numerous awards for her service to community and children’s advocacy. Some include the Democratic Black Caucus Irma Hunter Brown Women’s Leadership Award, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families Friends of Children Award, Pulaski County Youth Services Vision 2025 Advocate for Youth Award, and the Arkansas Access to Justice’s Justice Robin Wynn Judicial Service.
An active member of St. Mark Baptist Church, she serves as a large group leader/storyteller in children’s church and a director for the Watson Primary Ensemble choir for children ages 3-11. Byrd Manning is a life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated and is in the Beta Pi Omega Chapter. She is also a life member of the NAACP, the U of A and UA Little Rock’s Alumni Associations.
She is married to Michael and is bonus mom to twin sons, Owen and Nicholas.