The Fayette Citizen-News Page

Wednesday, January 8, 2003

Lowery to speak at CCSU's MLK event

One of the giants of the civil rights movement, the Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, will be the keynote speaker for Clayton College & State University's Third Annual Martin Luther King Day Commemoration Event tomorrow.

Proclaimed the "dean of the civil rights movement" at the 1997 NAACP national convention, Lowery will be speaking on "The Civil Rights Movement: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" in the University's Athletics & Fitness Center at 7 p.m. The program is free and open to the public.

Clayton State's gospel choir, Inspirational Voices of Unity (IVU) will also be performing as part of the evening's program.

The co-founder along with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and President Emeritus of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Lowery has been a leader in the civil rights movement since the early 1950s, when he led the Alabama Civic Affairs Association in Mobile, Al., in a campaign to desegregate that city's buses, public accommodations and police force.

In the almost 50 years since then, Lowery has been a seminal figure in the fight for equal rights throughout the nation, serving as president and CEO of SCLC for 21 years, leading the 1965 Selma-Montgomery march to the doorstep of then-Alabama Governor George Wallace, getting arrested in Atlanta in 1968 while fighting for the rights of the city's garbage workers, serving as co-founder and chairman of the Black Leadership Forum, and meeting with national and international leaders from Nelson Mandela to Yasir Arafat.

Eleven members of IVU, all from the Southern Crescent, will be performing on the same stage as Lowery. Included in the performers are President Nicole Connell of Peachtree City, Vice President Jenny King of Morrow and Parliamentarian Celeste Watwood of Morrow. Other members of IVU include Danan Arnold of Riverdale, Adaeze Akukwe of Morrow, Nikki Fisher of Jonesboro, Lakesia Tyson of Atlanta, Dina Terry of Morrow, Valencia Curney of Decatur, Shemika Williams of Decatur, and Lisa Isham of Jonesboro.

For more information on Clayton State's MLK Commemoration Day, please call the University's Office of Diversity and Disability Services at 770-961-3719 or visit the University's MLK Commemoration Day Web site at http://a-s.clayton.edu/mlking/events.htm.

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