LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The civil rights movement of the 1960s changed America forever. But what has it really meant to society? And what effect will it have on our future? The University of Louisville will launch a five-year program to celebrate the movement and explore its impact, Monday, Oct. 14.
UofL officials will unveil Project Progress, a series of lectures, exhibits and other programming, at a 5 p.m. reception at the University Club on Belknap Campus. Sponsored by the Department of Pan African Studies and the Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity and International Affairs, Project Progress will examine the aftermath of the “heroic period” of the movement from the Montgomery bus boycotts of 1963 through the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
Ricky Jones, Pan African Studies chair, said the program was prompted by celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington in August. “After the events, where do we go?” he asked. “We’re going to take a deep dive into the movement — year by year, event by event — and explore what impact it has on society today and into the future.”
Jones said Project Progress will promote educational programming and scholarly examination, including publications and policy papers on how far America has advanced since the 1960s. It also will provoke discussion on the social and political challenges that lie ahead.
The first lecture, “Before Bombingham and Beyond Trayvon: America’s War of Terror,” will be Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. in the Ekstrom Library’s Chao Auditorium. Sponsored by the UofL School of Law’s diversity committee, the program will focus on community and government responses to “the long line of individual and community terrorist activities heaped upon black Americans.”
For more information on Project Progress, call Jones at (502) 852-0027 or Mordean Taylor-Archer, vice provost for diversity and international affairs, at (502) 852-5719.