Watkins ’06 is doing his part to help fellow Black Americans with access to affordable education that could propel them to business opportunities and generational wealth.

After earning his UofL electrical engineering bachelor’s degree, Watkins started the speakers’ bureau Great Black Speakers and other entrepreneurial ventures, also adding a Cornell University MBA to his resume.

He co-founded in 2016 and is vice chairman of The Black Business School, an education and training platform to provide Black students with culturally relevant, practical instruction in areas from investing to personal finance to entrepreneurship.

Watkins also co-founded the Black Experts Empire for professionals and publishes the Black Business Daily newsletter with articles pertinent to business and investing.

Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business highlighted his success story of entrepreneurship during Black History Month.

The University of Louisville commemorates Black history every day through the Charles H. Parrish Jr. Freedom Park, created in 2012 between Second and Third streets on the Belknap Campus. That location is intentional, as it used to be adjacent to a monument erected in 1895 to honor Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War. That monument has since been removed from UofL’s campus.

The park also pays homage to nine civil rights champions with ties to the University of Louisville, who are featured on glass panels on the pergola. Some of these names may sound familiar, including:

• Anne M. Braden– A journalist and nationally known civil rights leader, Braden taught civil rights history for the decade before her death. The Anne Braden Institute at UofL carries forward her legacy.
• Rufus E. Clement– The first dean of Louisville Municipal College in 1931, Clement built a strong faculty before leaving to become president of Atlanta University in 1937.
• Lyman Tefft Johnson– Johnson was the plaintiff in the lawsuit that forced the desegregation at the University of Kentucky Graduate School in 1949. He then launched a campaign to desegregate UofL, which led the Kentucky General Assembly to end racial segregation in all Kentucky colleges and universities in 1950.
• Lucy Freibert– A faculty member from 1971 to 1993, Freibert taught UofL’s first women’s studies course in 1973 and helped establish the Women’s Center and the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies.
• Charles Henry Parrish, Jr.– UofL’s first African-American professor, he joined the university in 1951, the first African-American appointed to the faculty of a historically white university in the south.
• Eleanor Young Love– Dr. Love was the first African-American librarian at the University of Kentucky in 1955. A decade later, she became the first director of Project Upward Bound and an assistant dean at UofL.
• Joseph H. McMillan, Sr.– A 1950 UofL graduate, McMillan returned in 1976 as an assistant provost, professor of education, director of the Office of Minority Affairs and founder of the National Conference on the Black Family in America.
• Woodford R. Porter– A community and business leader, he was the first African-American chair of the UofL Board of Trustees. He served four terms as chair.
• Wilson W. Wyatt, Sr.– Former Louisville mayor and Kentucky lieutenant governor, Wyatt also was a UofL trustee and made the first motion to desegregate the university in 1949.

J. Blaine Hudson, who ideated Freedom Park, is also featured on a glass panel. Hudson was a student leader of UofL’s Black Student Union in the late 1960s and was once arrested for occupying an administration building as part of a call for creating a Black studies program. Years later, his advocacy came full circle as he joined UofL as an employee, working his way from staff to history instructor to tenured professor in the Pan African Studies Department – one of the first such departments in the country and the first in the south. Hudson eventually served as dean of the College of Arts & Sciences before his death in 2013.

His idea of Freedom Park came about to provide a complete historical account, balancing out that once proximate Confederate monument. In addition to those glass panels, the park also includes 10 black granite pillars detailing Louisville’s history in chronological order:

• , 1750
• , 1775-1865
• , 1830-1860
• , 1815-1865
• , 1863-1865
• , 1865-1877
• , 1865-1900
• , 1900-1940
• , 1940-1970
• , 1970-today

Notably, the park itself surrounds the Playhouse, which was constructed in 1874 as a chapel for the House of Refuge, a municipal institution for orphaned children. It was first used as a theater in 1925. In 1977, the Playhouse was dismantled and placed in storage to make way for Ekstrom Library. It reopened in 1980 at its current location. With 344 seats, the Playhouse is home to performances by UofL’s acclaimed African-American Theatre Program.��

Representative Lewis was awarded UofL School of Law’s highest honor, the Brandeis Medal, in 2000. He again visited campus in 2013 as part of the Kentucky Author Forum. In 2018, his civil rights work was recognized in a Law School Diversity Forum.

The Brandeis Medal honors individuals whose lives reflect Justice Brandeis’ commitment to the ideals of individual liberty, concern for the disadvantaged and public service. Representative Lewis was recognized because of his “lifelong commitment to human rights, preservation of personal dignity, and unfailing support of social justice, and one of the most courageous persons in the Civil Rights Movement.” ��

“On the day of his passing, Representative John Lewis joined in a bipartisan letter to Secretary of ����ֱ�� Betsy DeVos asking her support for grants to support teacher preparation about civics. This letter exemplifies his tireless advocacy for social justice and civil rights. He died only hours later after a long battle with cancer,” said Professor Laura Rothstein, co-chair of the Brandeis Medal Committee.

During Representative Lewis’s 2013 visit to the University of Louisville for the Kentucky Author Forum about his trilogy graphic novel��March, he was interviewed by Rachel Maddow at the event at the Kentucky Center. For his on-campus interview, Louisville Law Professor Enid Trucios-Haynes had the honor of interviewing Congressman Lewis.�� ��

Attendees at that event included four Law and Government Magnet students from Central High School, who were part of the partnership of the Brandeis School of Law with Central High School. ��

“Congressman Lewis clearly enjoyed the presence and energy of the young people in the room, knowing that these young people were critical to the work of social justice and civil rights,” Rothstein said.

Feb. 1: A black history celebration and keynote address by , an activist for black, Muslim and femme communities and executive director of Equality for HER. The 6 p.m. program in Strickler Hall’s auditorium begins with music by UofL’s Black Diamond Choir followed by more music, dances and comments from students and community members around the theme of “Carrying the Torch.”

Feb. 2-6 and 9-12: “,” a play by Kirsten Greenidge and directed by Theatre Arts Department Chair and Professor Nefertiti Burton. Performed by students in the African American Theatre Program, the play examines the implications and aftermath of a racially charged incident on a college campus. Performances are Feb. 2-6 and Feb. 9-12 (no performances Feb. 7-8) at 8 p.m. weekdays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays, Thrust Theatre, 2314 S. Floyd St. is $8-$15.

Feb. 13: Composer and conductor performs with the University Symphonic Band and Noe Middle School Band as part of an African American Music Heritage Institute , 7 p.m., School of Music, Comstock Hall. General admission is $10 and $5 for students. It is free for UofL students.

Feb. 17-26: “Empowerment: Making and Shaping History,” a at the Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium that explores themes in social justice. Shows are 6 p.m. Feb. 17, 18 and 24 and 2 p.m. Feb. 18, 19, 25 and 26.

Feb. 19: “A Salute to African American Athletes: Trailblazers Who Broke Color Barriers in College Sports” will be the UofL/Yearlings Club’s Black History Month , 4-6 p.m., Yearlings Club, 4309 W. Broadway.��

UofL also offers free online guides to two Louisville civil rights tours: , compiled by the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research, and a noting civil rights demonstration spots near businesses that refused to serve African Americans.��The College of Arts and Sciences developed both tours with community partners.

For years, Davis has been involved in movements for social justice around the world and is a leading advocate for prison reform and gender and racial equality. She is also featured in the 2016 Netflix documentary “13th” about mass incarceration in the United States. Davis has authored 10 books, the most recent of which was published in February 2016.

Her talk, titled “Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement,” brought out thousands of people from UofL and the Louisville community,��far more attendees than expected. In fact, hundreds of people had to be turned away after the venue reached capacity.��

“We hoped for and believed we would get a full house,” said Cate Fosl, director of the Anne Braden Institute.�� “But when as many people have to be turned away from such an event as those who get in, it bespeaks an incredible outpouring of enthusiasm, a desire for supportive community whereby people are not marginalized.”

The program included various poems by spoken word artist, Hannah Drake, and an introduction from Antron Mahoney, a graduate student in UofL’s department of Pan African studies.

Davis touched on a variety of controversial topics in her lecture including the recent presidential election and how we can continue to move toward equity in the United States. Among her thoughts:

2016 Presidential Election

Davis said Hillary Clinton’s historic campaign was��about more than just shattering the glass ceiling, “it’s about reaching down to the very bottom and lifting to the top.”

“I am sad to say that if Hillary Clinton had been elected President we may not recognize that we are in a state of emergency.”

Electoral College

Davis believes��the electoral college is obsolete and that it was designed to “give slave states with smaller populations the power to emerge as the governing forces at a national level.”

“The electoral college is a reminder that we have not extricated ourselves from slavery,” she said.

Black Lives Matter

Davis had several thoughts on the Black Lives Matter movement including:

• “Black Lives Matter is the most inclusive statement.”
• “If we ever reach a point in time when black lives actually matter, it would mean that all lives matter.”
• “We need a new political party. An independent party inspired by the black radical movement.”

Davis’ history with Louisville

Davis is very familiar with Louisville. She was a visiting professor at UofL in 2002, teaching women’s and gender studies.

Because of her work, and its controversial nature, she has also been given three keys to the city, the first of which was confiscated before being handed back. In the 1970s, Davis was denied to speak at Central High School, but was invited to speak at Reverend Gilbert Schroerlucke’s church (West Broadway UM)) instead.

Davis’ relationship with Braden

Davis also discussed her friendship with Anne Braden, the Louisvillian activist after which the social justice institution is named:

“I often ask myself what would Anne Braden do? I reflect on her theories,” Davis said.��“Anne Braden was always aware of the way history pulls us back into the past.”

A Q&A followed the lecture, and younger members of the audience were encouraged to participate.

.��

The collection is available at the website,��, which was launched this week by the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research at the University of Louisville and its partners.

The site presents interactive material drawn from the 2014 “Black Freedom, White Allies, Red Scare: Louisville, 1954” exhibition at the Louisville Free Public Library’s Main Library.

Materials include archival photos, primary source documents and oral histories about Andrew and Charlotte Wade’s struggles as African-Americans to buy a new suburban house near what is now Shively. Segregationists used dynamite to blow up the couple’s home. Anne and Carl Braden, white supporters who had bought the home on the Wades’ behalf, were accused of staging the purchase and bombing as part of a communist plot, and were charged with sedition.

“A dramatic act of housing desegregation led to racial violence and intimidation and culminated with a local version of the anticommunist ‘Red Scare’ that swept the nation in those years,” said historian Catherine Fosl, the Anne Braden Institute director who co-curated the exhibit. “The case made major national headlines and affected many lives locally but is often neglected in textbooks that cover the Cold War and civil rights eras.”

Partners include University of Louisville Libraries’ Archives & Special Collections, Louisville Free Public Library, The Courier-Journal and GRIDS: The Grassroots Information Design Studio.