Dr. Bernard Lafayette was a central leader in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, a lieutenant of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a freedom rider. He is featured in the new PBS documentary, “The Freedom Riders.” Dr. Lafayette currently serves as the Distinguished Senior Scholar-in-Residence at Emory University.

The Rev. Dr. Lafayette, an ordained minister, is a longtime civil rights activist, organizer, and an authority on nonviolent social change. He co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960, and he was a core leader of the civil rights movement in Nashville, TN, in 1960 and in Selma, AL, in 1965. He directed the Alabama Voter Registration Project in 1962, and he was appointed by Martin Luther King, Jr. to be national program administrator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and national coordinator of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign.

This event is sponsored by the Michigan Community Scholars Program (MCSP), the Residential College, KingӢChavezӢParks Visiting Professors Program, the Office of the Senior Vice Provost, the Ginsberg Center, Afroamerican and African Studies Department, Sociology Department, History Department, American Culture Program, Arts of Citizenship, and Community Action and Social Change Minor.