(JACKSON, Miss.) – The Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy, the COFO Civil Rights Education Center, and the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University will celebrate black history, culture and civic engagement during a three-day event Feb. 19-21.
Tuesday, Feb. 19, 6 p.m.
The JSU Reading Community will discuss Medgar Evers: Mississippi Martyr by Dr. Michael Vinson Williams at the COFO Civil Rights Education Center, 1017 John R. Lynch St. in Jackson. This biography of a lesser-known but seminal civil rights leader draws on personal interviews from Evers’ widow Myrlie Evers-Williams, his two remaining siblings, friends, grade-school-to-college schoolmates, and fellow activists to elucidate Evers as an individual, leader, husband, brother, and father. The panel will include Dr. Rico Chapman, JSU Assistant Professor of History; Dr. Michael Vinson Williams, author of Medgar Evers: Mississippi Martyr; and Precious Vines, graduate student, JSU Department of History.
Wednesday, Feb. 20, 10 a.m. – WATCH TODAY’S EVENT LIVE HERE
Jackson State University, the COFO Civil Rights Education Center, and the Department of History and Philosophy will commemorate the 50th anniversary of Evers’ assassination and celebrate his life and legacy. This event will be held on the JSU campus at the Dollye M.E. Robinson Liberal Arts Building, Room 166/266. This event will feature keynote speaker Dr. Michael Vinson Williams, author of Medgar Evers: Mississippi Martyr. Other guests for the afternoon include Colia Lafayette Clark, special assistant to Medgar Wiley Evers; Derrick Johnson, President, Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP; Yohance Myles, Assistant Professor, JSU Theater Department; and Albert Sykes, Director of Advocacy and Policy, the Young People’s Project.
Thursday, Feb. 21, 6:30 p.m.
The Medgar Evers/Ella Baker Civil Rights Lecture Series will discuss “Voting as a Constitutional Right in the 21st Century: How Do We Institutionalize the 1965 Voting Rights Act” at the Java Café located inside the H.T. Sampson Library. The panel includes: Dr. Michelle D. Deardorff, Professor and Chair, JSU Department of Political Science; Rob McDuff, civil rights and criminal defense attorney, McDuff Law Firm; Mike Sayer, senior organizer and training coordinator, Southern Echo; and Ellis Turnage, attorney, Turnage Law Office. This panel will discuss how, today, minority voters still face significant obstacles in registering to vote and casting ballots and how attempts to manipulate the law in ways that will disadvantage communities of color still continue 48 years later after the passing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
All events will be streamed live on the JSU website, www.jsums.edu. For further information, contact the Hamer Institute at 601-979-1562, 601-979-1563 or hamer.institute@jsums.edu, or the COFO Center at 601-979-4348 or COFO.Center@jsums.edu.
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