Guest speaker to tell history of Black Freedom Struggle
A guest speaker plans to educate students about the Civil Rights Movement during the program “Writing the Black Freedom Struggle.”
Guest speaker Clarence Lang, an assistant African American studies professor from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said the presentation is a discussion about new directions in the study of African American social movements, particularly the post-World-War II Civil Rights Movement.
“My hope is that students will gain a greater sense of how the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s encompassed more than just southern communities, but rather included lesser-known struggles north of the Mason-Dixon Line,” Lang said.
In this presentation Lang will talk about Civil Rights Movement organizations and activists of the Midwestern U.S. along with what they did to promote and further their cause.
Tim Engles, an English professor who helped coordinate the event, said Lang first caught his attention after he wrote the book Grassroots at the Gateway.
“His book opened my eyes to the vital, extensive part played in the Civil Rights Movement by Midwestern activists and organizations,” Engles said. “The black-freedom movement is normally thought of as fullsouthern based and unified in its efforts and concerns, misconceptions that Dr. Lang will correct.”
Lang, a member of the Road Scholar Speaker Bureau, has spent his time working to correct the misconception and educate students on how the Civil Rights Movement also had a large affect on those in the northern states.
Engles said he looks forward to a good turnout and that students can learn a lot from this type of presentation, especially about the diversity of the Civil Rights Movement.
“(Attendees) will learn more about the Civil Rights Movement, and about how diverse the black struggle for freedom within it really was, and still is.” Engles said. “Both working-class and middle-class members of the black community helped propel the movement, more than we tend to realize.”
“Writing the Black Freedom Struggle” 5 p.m. today in the Doudna Fine Arts Center.
“Dr. Lang’s presentation promises to be engaging and informative, and useful-the struggle for black justice and equality is far from over,” Engles said.
Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-2812
