Date:         Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:36:10 +0000
Sender:       Graduate School <GRAD-SCHOOL@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         UGA Graduate School <grad-sch@UGA.EDU>
Subject:      Congressman John Lewis to deliver lecture on April 19, 4:00 pm,
              in UGA Chapel
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

Dear Graduate Students,

I am delighted to invite you to hear Congressman John Lewis, Representative for Georgia’s 5th Congressional District and civil rights leader, deliver the 11th Annual Mary Frances Early Lecture on April 19 at 4 p.m. in the UGA Chapel.  Following the lecture, a reception will be held for Congressman Lewis and Mary Frances Early in the Dean Rusk Center.

Please share this invitation with your friends.  If you have any questions, please contact Judy Milton, jmilton@uga.edu<mailto:jmilton@uga.edu>, with any questions.

Since 1987, Lewis has represented Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, an area that includes Atlanta, in the U.S. House of Representatives. He serves on the Committee on Ways and Means and two of its subcommittees, the Subcommittee on Oversight and the Subcommittee on Human Resources.

Motivated by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Lewis became extensively involved in the civil rights movement during his twenties.  In 1963, he was named the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a prominent civil rights organization, and planned lunch sit-ins, non-violent protests, and voter registration drives.

Lewis quickly turned into a national figure when he spoke alongside King at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. He was only 23-years-old at the time.

Two years later in an event deemed “Bloody Sunday,” Lewis led a group of 600 protestors from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. to demonstrate the need for equal voting rights. While crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, state police attacked Lewis and the protesters. Television coverage and images from the violent confrontation helped sway public opinion onto the side of the civil rights activists and advance the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The annual lecture honors Mary Frances Early, the first African-American to earn a degree from UGA, and her continuing legacy at UGA.  The lecture recognizes the progress that has been made in achieving Early’s vision and focuses on the work remaining to be done.

I encourage you to attend this special event.  It is open to everyone with no charge.

Sincerely,
Maureen Grasso
Dean of the Graduate School

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do not send replies or questions to the listserv.  This listserv does not accept replies.




The Graduate School
The University of Georgia
320 E. Clayton Street, Suite 400
Athens, GA 30602-4401
http://www.grad.uga.edu

This message was sent by staff in the UGA Graduate School to all graduate students who have registration eligibility.  This is for official communication only.  This listserv does not accept replies.  Please contact the person identified in the message if you have questions.

[text/html]