Contact: Robbie Ward
A University of Chicago scholar and authority on social change and modern African-American history will examine a state legacy of the 1960s civil rights movement during a 6:30 p.m. Thursday [Sept. 18] program at Mississippi State.
Charles M. Payne's presentation on the Mississippi freedom schools is the first in the university's 2008-09 African-American Lecture Series. He is the Frank P. Hixon Professor in U.C.'s School of Social Service Administration.
The program takes place in the Taylor Auditorium of McCool Hall.
Freedom schools were part of a nationwide effort to help African-Americans living in a then-segregated society to achieve social, political and economic equality.
Payne has written numerous books and articles about the American civil rights movement. His 1995 work, "I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement," won several prominent awards.
Payne also will participate in a 2 p.m. forum that same day on collegiate African-American studies. Taking place in the John Grisham Room of Mitchell Memorial Library, the forum will include faculty and staff associated with the MSU program, as well as the director of African-American studies at the University of Mississippi.
History professor Stephen Middleton directs MSU's African-American studies program, which was launched in 2007 and includes an academic minor at the undergraduate level and several courses at the graduate level.
For more information on Payne's visit, contact Middleton at 662-325-1895 or smiddleton@aas.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.