Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Black History Month speakers at Lake Campus

0

CELINA — The Lake Campus will be welcoming two speakers to campus during the month of February in celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Black History Month. These events are free and open to the public.

The first event is entitled Making King Matter: Lessons from the Civil Rights Movement. It will be Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. in James F. Dicke Hall.

Associate Professor of History at The Ohio State University Dr. Hasan Jeffries will be the speaker. Based on his award-winning work on Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt, Jeffries will address important historical themes of the Civil Rights Movement while examining their contemporary meaning. He will highlight the importance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration.

The secong event is entitled Vanishing Act: Preserving Longtown’s Black History. It will be Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. in James F. Dicke Hall.

The speaker will be Connor Keiser. Keiser is a direct descendant of James Clemens, a freed slave from Virginia who became a prosperous farmer in Longtown, Ohio (Darke County). Keiser is secretary and a board member of the Union Literary Institute Preservation Society in Longtown and a WSU student majoring in International Studies. In celebration of Black History Month, Keiser will detail the significance of Longtown’s Black History and his efforts to preserve what’s left of it. In the fall of 2015 Keiser was featured in The Washington Post for his effort to preserve history.

Both presentations are open to the public. For information about Dr. Jeffries’ presentation please contact [email protected]. For information about Connor Keiser’s presentation please contact [email protected] or [email protected].

Staff report

No posts to display