A group of renowned civil rights activists, journalists and historians will speak today at the Civil Rights Forum in the Holliday Forum of the Journalism Building to discuss their roles in civil rights and how current citizens should respond to contemporary civil rights issues.
Program Director and Professional-in-Residence Bob Ritter said they “put together a group of eight people who are involved in civil rights, either covering as journalists, activists and scholars to talk about contemporary civil rights issues and makes suggestions about what we have learned and what can be applied.”
Some of the distinguished panelists include Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff, who co-authored “The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle and the Awakening of a Nation” that won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for History; and Moses Newson, a pioneering civil rights journalist with the Afro-American Newspapers who covered stories throughout the South and the rest of the country during the height of the movement in the 1950s and 1960s, the news release said.
Dorothy Cotton, recipient of the 2010 National Freedom Award of the National Civil Rights Museum and friend of Martin Luther King Jr., will also be there, Ritter said.
There will be two presentations about civil rights: one from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and the second from 1:30 to 4 p.m., according to the news release.
Director of the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs Bob Mann said students with all types of majors can learn from the presenters.
“People can learn about American history and how difficult it was to be an African-American person in the ’50s and ’60s and how hard they had to fight for basic rights,” Mann said.
Ritter said he is looking forward to the speakers because they were part of “one of the most significant social movements in the 20th century.”
“Just because bills are in place and we have an African-American president doesn’t mean we have conquered racism or the problem of race,” Mann said. “There are still challenges in this country to address and face them honestly.”
