MURFREESBORO
— MTSU is celebrating Constitution Day Wednesday, Sept. 14, with a woman
whose decades of activism helped secure the blessings of liberty for all
American citizens.
Civil rights leader Diane Nash, whose ideas and
actions helped integrate Nashville lunch counters, desegregate bus travel and
ultimately lead to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, will speak at 2:30
p.m. Sept. 14 in a free public address inside MTSU’s Tucker Theatre.
Nash’s talk, titled “Saying No to Oppression:
Legacy and Civic Responsibility,” is one of the highlights of the daylong
celebration across campus in observation of the 229th anniversary of the
Constitution’s signing.
Students, faculty, staff and visitors will read the
historic document at multiple sites across MTSU throughout the day, and voter
registration tables will be set up in busy locations to help citizens prepare
for the Nov. 8 federal and state elections.
And at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 14, Grammy-nominated
singer/songwriter Tracy Nelson, the blues-rock icon who fronted Mother Earth in
the 1960s and ’70s and now sings across the country, will perform songs of
freedom in Room 221 of the McWherter Learning Resources Center.
Free public parking for Nash’s 2:30 p.m. talk will
be available in the lot adjoining MTSU’s Reese Smith Baseball Field, which is
across the street from Tucker Theatre. A searchable, printable campus map is
available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap.
“2016 is
a historically significant year of the woman in the United States,” noted Dr.
Mary Evins, director of the American Democracy Project at MTSU and coordinator
of the university’s Constitution Day activities.
“One hundred years ago, in 1916, the first woman
was elected to Congress. Fifty years ago, the National Organization for Women
was founded. In 1981, 35 years ago, the first woman was appointed and confirmed
to the U.S. Supreme Court. Just last month, Tennessee unveiled the state’s
woman suffrage statue. Civil rights, justice, voting rights, and rights for all
people are the ongoing work of building a perfect union, and our universitywide
programming (for Constitution Day) challenges students to get involved in this
shared work.
“Ms. Nash is the embodiment of our fundamental
American values and responsibilities, for which we honor her,” added Evins, who
also serves as research professor with the Center for Historic Preservation at
MTSU. “Some of MTSU’s finest student leaders will moderate the post-lecture
discussion with Ms. Nash.”
You can get a preview of
the discussion this Sunday, Sept. 11, from 6 to 6:30 a.m. when Nash and Evins’
conversation about civil rights and the Constitution airs on WMOT-FM/Roots
Radio 89.5 and http://www.wmot.org.
Constitution Day this year is actually Saturday,
Sept. 17, but MTSU is observing it four days early to help more students participate.
Nash, who lives in Chicago, was a student at
Nashville’s Fisk University in the late 1950s and early ’60s when she became
active in the burgeoning civil rights movement. She led the Nashville sit-ins
in 1960, peacefully demonstrating with other students against the city’s whites-only
lunch counters until then-Mayor Ben West made Nashville the first Southern city
to desegregate the eateries in May.
Nash also co-founded the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee and joined the 1961 Freedom Rides to make interstate bus
travel accessible to all, as well as working for voter registration and
education equality in Mississippi and Alabama. She worked with fellow activist
James Bevel, her husband at the time, to organize the Selma-to-Montgomery
marches for voting rights in Alabama, where protesters’ efforts convinced
President Lyndon Johnson to push the Voting Rights Act of 1965 through
Congress.
As a result of her work, Nash has received numerous
awards and recognition, including the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference’s Rosa Parks Award, the John F. Kennedy Library and Foundation’s
Distinguished American Award and the Freedom Award from the National Civil
Rights Museum. She’s been an integral part of award-winning documentaries,
including the “Eyes on the Prize” series and the PBS “American Experience”
documentary on the Freedom Riders, and was one of the focuses of David
Halberstam’s “The Children.”
MTSU observes the
Constitution’s 1787 signing every year with special events and programs
organized by the university chapter of the American Democracy Project.
Last year’s
civic-awareness efforts also included a special panel discussion on the 50th
anniversary of the U.S. Voting Rights Act with two men who were right in the
middle of the action: Nash’s fellow activists, the Revs. C.T. Vivian and James
Lawson.
Tuesday, Oct. 11, is the
final voter registration deadline in Tennessee to cast a ballot on Nov. 8.
For more information
about American Democracy Project events at MTSU, email amerdem@mtsu.edu or visit http://www.mtsu.edu/amerdem.
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