Jackson State University will celebrate its 137th Founders’ Week activities October 20-24, 2014 on the campus of Jackson State University and at the Jackson Convention Center.
Keynote speaker this year is Hank Thomas, a civil rights veteran and Freedom Rider in 1961. The keynote address promises to be spellbinding. Thomas was one of the seven Freedom Riders to be on board a Greyhound bus traveling through Anniston, Alabama, when Klansmen hurled a firebomb into it. Today, Thomas is the only living survivor of the incident.
The Founders’ Day Convocation will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, October 23, at the H.P. Jacobs Administration Tower Lawn and Quad on the JSU campus at 1400 John R. Lynch St. In case of inclement weather, it will be held at the Rose E. McCoy Auditorium.
Events will be capped by a 7 p.m. Friday, October 24, Black Tie Gala at the Jackson Convention Center in downtown Jackson, hosted by the Jackson State University National Alumni Association.
Leading up to the Convocation, the agenda includes an 11 a.m. Monday, Oct. 20 forum at the Dollye M. E. Robinson Liberal Arts Lecture Rooms 166/266 titled Striving, Thriving, and Excelling Against the Odds, featuring speakers Robert Walker, Dr. Ivory Phillips and moderator Dr. Hilliard Lackey III.
At 11:30 a.m. Tuesday a forum will be held on The Women in the History of Jackson State University at the College of Business Auditorium with Dr. Robert Luckett and Heather Wilcox, with moderator Dr. Etta F. Morgan.
At 11 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22, a forum will be held on The JSU Spirit Through Football and Band at the Dollye M. E. Robinson Liberal Arts Lecture Rooms 166/266 with Samuel Jefferson and W.C. Gorden with moderator Dr. Steven Smith; and Dr. Lewis Liddell, Gloria Tatum, and Shirley Blakley with moderator Mea Ashley.
“This year marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act, and Jackson State University’s history is steeped in remnants of ‘the Movement,’” said Dr. Marie O’Banner-Jackson, associate dean of undergraduate studies. “Therefore, I am grateful that Mr. Thomas, an icon of the Movement, agreed to serve as speaker for our 137th Founders’ Day Convocation as we celebrate the theme: One JSU: Higher Purpose, Higher Expectations, Higher Outcomes.”
Thomas has many tales about his ordeal on behalf of civil rights on those rides. While in Mississippi, he spent a week in the Hinds County jail before being transported to the State Penitentiary at Parchman for 35 days — placed in solitary confinement twice. After being released on bail, he went on to participate in the July 14 New Jersey to Arkansas CORE Freedom Ride.
Thomas also served as a medic in the Vietnam War in 1965 and earned the Purple Heart after being wounded in battle.
A businessman, he is the owner of four Marriot hotels and two McDonald’s.
Among his many honors and awards are being inducted to The International Civil Rights Walk Of Fame, 2010 Recipient of The Margaret Bush Wilson Lifetime Achievement Award From The St. Louis City NAACP, and 2010 inductee of The Atlanta Business League Men Of Influence Hall Of Fame. He is a NAACP life member, and serves on the boards of directors of Morehouse School of Medicine and Talladega College, among others. He has endowed scholarships at The Piney Woods School in Jackson and Howard University, in Washington, D.C., among others. And among his television appearances are a CNN Special: The Sixties and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
He lives in the Atlanta area.
For additional information about the Convocation, call O’Banner-Jackson at 601-979-7092.
“We invite all students, alumni, friends, faculty and surrounding communities to hear Hank Thomas and attend all activities planned during Founders’ Week,” O’Banner-Jackson said.