Citizen Science Program and Center for Civic Engagement Present
Bending toward Justice: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Localism of the Moral Universe, with panel discussion immediately following on Science and Social Justice
Monday, January 15, 2018
Olin Hall
3:30 pm – 5:30 pm EST/GMT-5
3:30 pm – 5:30 pm EST/GMT-5
Speaker and moderator: Francesca Gamber, Principal and Faculty in History, Bard High School Early College, Baltimore, Maryland
Panel participants:
Daniel Newsome '02, Citizen Science and Bard Prison Initiative Faculty, Bard College
Heather Lawrence, Education Administrator, NYC Department of Education
Helen Epstein, Visiting Professor of Human Rights and Global Public Health
Bard College
Panel participants:
Daniel Newsome '02, Citizen Science and Bard Prison Initiative Faculty, Bard College
Heather Lawrence, Education Administrator, NYC Department of Education
Helen Epstein, Visiting Professor of Human Rights and Global Public Health
Bard College
In an oft-cited speech from 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. said that "somehow the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice." In this presentation, which is partly a history lesson and partly a call to action, we will explore the composition of that "somehow." Recent historians of the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-twentieth century have emphasized the local roots of this national movement. They have shown that the prominence of King and other leaders reflected, built upon, and was indeed nurtured by generations of grassroots, community-based organizing by African-American churches, clubs, and especially women. The 1950s and 1960s were, in fact, part of a continuum of local black activism against segregation that reached back to the post-emancipation era. And so we consider, in our own time, where the challenges are in our communities and where we can find our place along a historical continuum of action. The most local site of change is within ourselves and the choices we make -- the "somehow" -- that ultimately bend the universe toward justice.
For more information, call 845-758-6822.
Time: 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm EST/GMT-5
Location: Olin Hall