Marching to the Courthouse for Freedom: The Life of a Volunteer in the American Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South in 1965

Event Details

Date:

Friday, 29 May 2015

Time:

1:30 pm - 3:00 pm

Room:

E109

UQ Location:

Forgan Smith Building (St Lucia)

URL:

Event category(s):

Full Description:: The Summer Community Organisation and Political Education (SCOPE) project was a voter registration civil rights initiative sponsored by Martin Luther King, Jr’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The events of the “Summer of ‘65” helped bring about passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which has been called the single most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever passed by the US Congress.

Associate Professor Richard Hutch was one of around 500 predominantly white northern college students who volunteered to go South. Working in Alabama on voter registration, community organisation and political education, Richard experienced violence first hand.

That summer, and the death three years later of Martin Luther King, Jr were transformative, and led directly to Richard’s future academic career, researching the cultivation of moral integrity.

Fifty years after the Project, Richard will speak about his experiences in the American Civil Rights Movement after the Selma to Montgomery March.

RSVP using the online form (http://www.vision6.com.au/em/forms/subscribe.php?db=458911&s=161336&a=51058&k=e70400d).

Associate Professor Richard Hutch's profile page (http://hapi.uq.edu.au/associate-professor-richard-hutch)