The Voting Rights Movement of the 1960s
Program 1: May 26, 2020
A conversation with Ms. Flonzie Brown Wright and Larry Rubin
Program 1: May 26, 2020
A conversation with Ms. Flonzie Brown Wright and Larry Rubin
Watch the video!
Panelists
In 1968, Dr. Flonzie Brown Wright became the first African American woman to hold a position as elected commissioner in Mississippi. In this role, she monitored elections, trained poll workers, supervised registrars, and sued the Elections Board for discriminating against black candidates and poll workers. Between 1969 and 1973, Brown Wright served as vice president of the Institute of Politics at Millsaps College, and from 1974 to 1989, she worked for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In 1994, she published her bestselling book, Looking Back to Move Ahead.
Larry Rubin was a SNCC organizer in Southwest Georgia and Northern Mississippi, working to support Black Southerners who were risking their lives to exercise their right to vote. Rubin grew up in a secular Jewish household in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Rubin’s father was a welder and his mother a hairdresser. Both were active in the progressive movement. His parents instilled in him the idea that the “essence of being Jewish is the responsibility to fight for justice.” When SNCC asked white organizers to form their own projects in white communities to fight racism Rubin started organizing poor whites, then became a union organizer and communications specialist and served four terms on the Takoma Park, Maryland, City Council.
Moderators
Dr. Janice Marie Johnson serves as Multicultural Ministries and Leadership Director at the Unitarian Universalist Association. Deeply committed to building bridges of equity across all kinds of difference, Janice guides strategic initiatives to expand the capacity to be welcoming and inclusive while actively combatting white supremacist systems. Janice, co-founder of the Living Legacy Project, is excited about her truly multicultural relationships with her family, friends, and colleagues.
Carlton E. Smith is an ordained minister in the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and a member of the UUA’s Congregational Life Staff for its Southern Region. He was one of the original five members of the Organizing Collective for Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU), an activist renewal movement within that faith tradition. A native and resident Mississippian, he’s twice been a candidate for elected office — US Congress in 2018 and State Senate in 2019. He is the son of Eddie Lee Smith, Jr. and Luberta Elliott Smith, the first Black Mayor and First Lady of Holly Springs, Mississippi (1989-2001). He takes seriously his inheritance from Mississippi Civil Rights pioneers such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Medgar and Myrlie Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer and Vernon Dahmer. Carlton, who is on the Board of the Living Legacy Project, feels most fulfilled when engaged in endeavors that carry their life-saving work forward.
All programs are free. Donations will be accepted to support the phenomenal guest speakers participating in the series and the ongoing work of the Living Legacy Project.
Suggested donation is $10 per program (more if you can, less if you can't).
Suggested donation is $10 per program (more if you can, less if you can't).
View Other Programs in the Series
If you'd like to watch other programs in the series, you'll find them all here on our YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/livinglegacyproject.
While you there, be sure to subscribe, so you don't miss other great LLP content. Thank you!
If you'd like to watch other programs in the series, you'll find them all here on our YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/livinglegacyproject.
While you there, be sure to subscribe, so you don't miss other great LLP content. Thank you!
