Civil rights activist to speak at Marshall Feb. 17 Tuesday, February 01, 2011
2/1/2011 8:50:00 AM Email this article • Print this article Civil rights activist to speak at Marshall Feb. 17SUBMITTED ARTICLEHUNTINGTON - Joan C. Browning, a Civil Rights activist and one of the original nine Freedom Riders in Albany, Ga., in 1961, will speak at Marshall University on Thursday, Feb. 17.Browning's talk, which is free to the public, begins at 7 p.m. in Room BE 5 in the basement of the Memorial Student Center on Marshall's Huntington campus. She is speaking as part of Marshall's new program in African and African American Studies. Her talk is sponsored by the Marshall University Honors College, the Phi Alpha Theta History Honorary Society of Marshall University and the Marshall University College of Liberal Arts.The Freedom Riders were men and women that boarded buses, trains and planes and headed for the deep South in 1961 to test the 1960 Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation in all interstate public facilities."I believe it is a wonderful opportunity for our students to learn how individuals, much like them, can stand up to an injustice and change the world in which they live," said Dr. David J. Pittenger, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. "Ms. Browning was a college student who answered the questions, 'If not us, who? If not now, when?' Her contributions to the civil rights movement stand as a lesson for us all."Browning grew up on a small farm in rural South Georgia. She was one of the few Southern whites who joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Her activities led to her expulsion from the all-white Georgia State College for Women.She moved to Atlanta where she became a leader of SNCC, listened to the speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and became active in a number of civil rights causes. At Marshall, she will discuss the history of the civil rights movement through her personal experiences.Now a free-lance writer on a mountain in West Virginia, she expresses the values that brought her to the Civil Rights Movement as a citizen and "villager" supporting quality of life initiatives, children's programs and libraries."In addition to being a veteran of the civil rights movement Joan is quite a historian and has extensive knowledge on African American history in West Virginia," said Dr. David J. Peavler, an assistant professor in the Department of History and director of the African and African American Studies Program. 'She has been very helpful in helping me with a new course I am teaching this semester, where students at Marshall conduct original research on African American history in West Virginia." Article Comment Submission Form The Cabell Standard. � P.O. Box 186 � Culloden ,WV 25510 � 304-743-6731 � Copyright � 2010 Unger Enterprises. Privacy Statement � Contact Us � Feedback � Email Updates � About Us � Advertise with Us Software © 1998-2011 1up! Software, All Rights Reserved -- http://www.cabellstandard.com/main.asp?SectionID=15&SubSectionID=15&ArticleID=2492 Via InstaFetch -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sixties-L" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
