WHAT: Media Preview: "And the Struggle Continues," the first public exhibition from the SCLC archive.
WHEN: 2-3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20
WHERE: Jones Room and Schatten Gallery, Emory University's Robert W. Woodruff Library, Level 3, 540 Asbury Circle, Atlanta, GA 30322.
Media are invited to preview the first public exhibition of materials from the SCLC archive housed in the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) at Emory University.
The exhibition, titled "And the Struggle Continues: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Fight for Social Change," is curated by Carol Anderson, associate professor of African American studies and human rights historian; Sarah Quigley, manuscript archivist and former SCLC project archivist; and Michael Ra-Shon Hall, a doctoral candidate in Emory's Institute for the Liberal Arts.
At the curators' talk, Quigley and Hall will speak briefly about the SCLC records and offer an overview of the exhibit themes. Most of the hour will be reserved for exploration and discussion in the gallery.
The exhibition opens Thursday, Feb. 21, with opening events on Friday, Feb. 22, which include:
Noon to 2 p.m., Jones Room, Woodruff Library
Lecture, discussion and book signing featuring Dorothy Cotton, SCLC education director from 1960-1968 and former vice president for field operations at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center) in Atlanta. Her new book, "If Your Back's Not Bent: The Role of the Citizenship Education Program in the Civil Rights Movement," will be available for sale and signing.
6-8 p.m., Schatten Gallery and Jones Room, Woodruff Library
Opening celebration for exhibition. Speakers will include SCLC leaders Dorothy Cotton (education director 1960-1968), Charles Steele Jr. (president and CEO) and Bernard Lafayette (board president).
The exhibition focuses on the ongoing struggle for civil and human rights in the years after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. The documents on display include letters, photographs and flyers that promote gatherings and protests. The show spotlights SCLC's major programs from the 1970s through the 1990s, beginning with the Poor People's Campaign in 1968.
Other initiatives highlighted in the exhibition include:
- SCLC's efforts to combat apartheid in South Africa;
- Programs in the 1990s designed to engage youth, such as Rappin' for our Future (an amateur talent program promoting a nonviolent lifestyle); and
- Initiatives on healthcare and economic equality, ending gun violence, among other issues.