Twenty days after the death of her mother, Yolanda King will return to the Penn State campus for the third time tonight to give a speech and a performance.

King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the recently deceased Coretta Scott King, will conclude the 2005-06 Distinguished Speaker Series (DSS) tonight.

King, an actress and human rights worker, has appeared in numerous plays and movies and is the founding director of the Cultural Affairs Program at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.

DSS chairwoman Leah Weiser said the committee selected King because of her past accomplishments as a performer and human rights worker.

"She has some really interesting history," Weiser said. "As a performer she's fairly well-known."

Ed Rowe, a DSS committee member, said King was very popular among the committee.

"When Yolanda King's name came up, there was unanimous consent among the committee," he said.

Rowe said the committee wanted to introduce King to a new generation of Penn State students. King's previous speeches on campus were in 2002 and 1998.

Weiser said the entire event will last about an hour.

She said King will speak for about 30 minutes and then put on an acting performance for about 15 minutes, leaving the final 15 minutes for a question and answer session with the audience.

Wesier said she did not know if the recent death of King's mother had affected her speech topic.

Darryl Watson, vice president of Black Caucus, said he did not know if members of the group would attend the speech, but he encouraged everyone to go.

"I encourage everyone in the group and across the campus to go and listen to Yolanda King and apply that message in their everyday lives," he said.

Sharise Wilson, president of the Black Graduate Student Association, said in an e-mail message that many people from her organization were planning to attend the speech.

"I think that it is great that Ms. King is blessing the campus with her presence," she said.

Rowe said he thought the speaker series had gone very well this year.

"We started with a really solid lineup and haven't had anyone disappoint our expectations," he said.

Rowe said he thought all the speeches had been well attended and the speakers engaged the audiences.

Tickets for King's speech will be available until 5 p.m. today from the Eisenhower Auditorium box office and at the door.

Tickets also are distributed from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the HUB-Robeson Center and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Downtown Theatre Center.

Individuals are limited to two free tickets each.