Civil rights leader Rev. Bernard Lafayette on voting rights in 2015 America – April 20

The Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Candler School of Theology at Emory University visits campus Monday for a 7 p.m. talk sponsored by Study USA. The program is free and open to the public.

 

Monday, April 20
Rev. Bernard Lafayette, “The March Across the Edmund Pettus Bridge: Fifty Years Later & Voting Rights in 2015 America”

Isabella Cannon Room (Center for the Arts), 7 p.m.

Study USA is bringing civil rights leader and MLK advisor Bernard Lafayette to Elon on Monday, April 20, at 7 p.m. in the Isabella Cannon Room in the Center for the Arts. Lafayette will share his memories of the 1965 Selma March, the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign, and his analysis of current voter identification efforts. The visit is part of Study USA’s ongoing commitment to the intellectual dialogue and civic engagement efforts at Elon.

Lafayette is now Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Candler School of Theology at Emory University. His long record of civil rights leadership and activism include participation in the 1960 Nashville, Tenn., Sit-In Movement, as a Freedom Rider in 1961, co-founder of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and as director of the Alabama Voter Registration Project in 1962-63.

Martin Luther King Jr. appointed Lafayette as the national program administrator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. During his work in Alabama, Lafayette served as one of the chief organizers of the Selma March which culminated in Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in March 1965 and he also served as chief organizer of the Poor People’s Campaign in 1968.

For more information, contact Mark Dalhouse, director of Study USA, at mdalhouse@elon.edu