Mary Frances Berry might be petite and soft spoken, but that does not mean she has not been heard.
The charismatic civil rights crusader will utilize her outspoken and often controversial style to address the status of Martin Luther King Jr.’s message at the Union Theater tonight a 7 o’clock during the University’s keynote speech to commemorate King’s birthday.
Berry made headlines in 1999 when, as head of the publicly funded Pacifica Radio Network, she fired a slue of the networks managers and called its programmers and listeners “white male hippies over 50.” During the ensuing backlash, Berry censored stations’ right to talk about the issue and had a broadcaster arrested while on the air for refusal to comply.
Though aware of the controversy, the University Martin Luther King commemorative committee, made up of students and faculty, narrowed a list of 10 to 15 speakers- including comedian Bill Cosby and former Presidential candidate Al Sharpton and chose Berry.
Collins Phillips, communications studies senior and co-chair of the Commemorative Committee, said Berry was the clear choice.
“She’s well aware she’s coming to LSU,” Phillips said, “and that Martin Luther King wouldn’t condone those kinds of comments. Our speakers are told that they are speaking in the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King.”
Tammy Sam, a psychology and English senior and co-chair of the commemorative committee, said Berry’s involvement in politics and present move to politics in public was an important part of her selection.
Leonard Moore, history associate professor and director of African-American Studies, feels that Berry will offer a fresh perspective. Moore said controversy about her background is simply perceptions.
“Too often white people go to an MLK event expecting to hear how good they have been to black people. We are a nation that promotes freedom of speech,” Moore said. “I would respect anything she says.”
Alana Henderson, an alumnae of of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., where Berry spoke for a King commemorative event last year, said in a phone interview that Berry addressed the need for black people to challenge the status quo and to get an education.
Berry did not address unity or racial harmony.
Currently, Berry is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She is the author of seven books about minority and gender issues.
Born in Nashville, Tenn. in 1938, Berry attended segregated public schools. She then earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Washington’s Howard University, a historically black university, and earned a doctorate in history from the University of Michigan. She served as the Chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
President Jimmy Carter appointed Berry to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1980. President Ronald Reagan tried to remove her in 1984, but Berry fought with legal action and remained on the commission until President George W. Bush took office for his first term.