Activist Angela Davis to Speak as Georgia Southern University Celebrates the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

January 13, 2011

Internationally renowned author, lecturer, educator and social justice advocate Angela Davis will share her perspective with members of Georgia Southern University and the local community at a celebration in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 27, in the University’s Performing Arts Center.

Davis will speak about what the civil rights movement means for 2011, which Consuela Ward, director of Georgia Southern’s Multicultural Student Center, said will add new perspective to Dr. King’s vision for current and future generations.

“I think it will be a great honor for Georgia Southern to host this living legacy,” Ward said. “I am sure Georgia Southern and the Statesboro community will gain invaluable lessons from her rich insight and experience.”

A political activist since the 1970s, Davis has remained entrenched in the struggle for social justice and equality. Through activism and scholarship in the educational and public spheres, she aims to reshape the future for those facing injustice in the realms of economics, race and gender. Professionally, she teaches feminist studies and history of consciousness at the University of California Santa Cruz.

Davis is a member of the executive board of the Women of Color Resource Center, a San Francisco Bay area organization that emphasizes popular education about women who live in conditions of poverty. She also works with Justice Now, which provides legal assistance to women in prison and engages in advocacy for the abolition of imprisonment as the dominant strategy for addressing social problems. Internationally, she is affiliated with Sisters Inside, a similar organization based in Queensland, Australia.

Co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management and the Multicultural Student Center, the event is free and open to the public and serves to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Davis’s lecture will advance the Center’s mission to create acomprehensive college experience which encourages social responsibility, student learning, and personal well-being obtained through cultural opportunities both inside and outside the classroom.