The University of Louisville will launch a five-year program to celebrate the movement and explore its impact with a 5 p.m. reception, Monday, Oct. 14, at the University Club on Belknap Campus.
The program, Project Progress, will be a series of lectures, exhibits and other programming that will examine the aftermath of the 鈥渉eroic period鈥 of the movement from the Montgomery bus boycotts of 1963 through the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. The Department of Pan-African Studies and the Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity and International Affairs are project sponsors.
Celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington in August prompted the program, said Ricky Jones, Pan-African Studies chair.
鈥淎fter the events, where do we go?鈥 he asked. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to take a deep dive into the movement 鈥攜ear by year, event by event鈥攁nd explore what impact it has on society today and into the future.鈥
Project Progress will promote educational programming and scholarly examination, including publications and policy papers on how far America has advanced since the 1960s, Jones said. It also will provoke discussion on the social and political challenges that lie ahead.
鈥淏efore Bombingham and Beyond Trayvon: America鈥檚 War of Terror鈥 will be the first lecture, Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. in the Ekstrom Library鈥檚 Chao Auditorium. The program will focus on community and government responses to 鈥渢he long line of individual and community terrorist activities heaped upon black Americans.鈥 The UofL School of Law鈥檚 diversity committee is the talk鈥檚 sponsor.