A Speaker Series in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous Riverside Church speech of April 4, 1967, entitled “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” when he spoke out against the war in Vietnam.
This series is free and open to the public. For more information contact the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Department of African American Studies at 312-996-2950.
Before each lecture,there will be a preview reception and viewing of the exhibit “African American PeaceMakers” at 4:00 PM at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum (800 South Halsted Street, Chicago).
SCHEDULE OF SPEAKERS AND TOPICS
Wednesday, April 2
Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall
“African American Women PeaceMakers”
Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall, renowned Black feminist intellectual, is the founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center and the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies Spelman College. She is author of Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought (New Press, 1995) and a book, co-authored with Johnnetta Cole, Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in African American Communities (Random House, 2003).
Thursday, April 3
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
“African American PeaceMakers on a Global Stage”
Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a longtime labor and human rights activist and former President and chief executive officer of the TransAfrica Forum, a national non-profit advocating for policies on behalf of the peoples of Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. He has traveled on human rights delegations to Haiti, South Africa, Ireland, and many parts of Latin America and Africa. Fletcher is currently Senior Scholar for the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC and editor for Black Commentator. Fletcher is a graduate of Harvard University, has authored numerous articles, and is co-author (with Fernando Gapasin) of the forthcoming book on the crisis of organized labor, Solidarity Divided, to be published by the University of California Press in late spring 2008.
Friday, April 4
Dr. Manning Marable
“African American PeaceMakers: A Historical View”
Dr. Manning Marable is one of America’s most influential and widely-read public intellectuals. Since 1993, Dr. Marable has been Professor of Public Affairs, Political Science, History, and African American Studies at Columbia University in New York City. For ten years, Dr. Marable was founding director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia. Under Dr. Marable’s leadership, the Institute became one of the nation’s most prestigious centers of scholarship on the Black American experience. Dr. Marable is a prolific author with almost 200 articles in academic journals and edited volumes. He has written or edited 21 books and scholarly anthologies, including How Re-imagining the African-American Past Can Remake America’s Racial Future (Basic Civitas Books, 2006).
This event is co-sponsored by the University of Illinois Office of the President, UIC Department of African American Studies, UIC College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, UIC Great Cities Institute, UIC Office of the Chancellor, The Public Square at the IHC, and the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.
For more information contact the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Department of African American Studies at 312-996-2950.