Rita Bender
Carver Gayton
Larry Gossett
Mercer View Room
8236 SE 24th Street,
Mercer Island, WA 98040
If you heard President-elect Obama's speech the other night, he mentioned a 106 year-old woman who had witnessed much in the way of change in our country over the last century. This summer, 24 local high school students got to talk to the man who stood next to MLK when he was shot on the balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, the woman who lived next door to Coretta and him in Montgomery, AL, where he had his first parsonage, and 2 men who were part of the Freedom Rides protests in the 1960s. There is a rich history awaiting any who are curious about the Civil Rights struggles in the Southeastern US in the 1950s and 60s that brought down the "Whites Only" signs and Jim Crow laws. Many of the people who were vital in the movement are still alive and full of perspective on how truly remarkable this year's presidential election is, not 50 years after a black person couldn't drink from the same water fountain as a white person in most southern cities.
Please join us for an evening of Civil Rights History, photography and fundraising for this amazing program, and meet some of the youth who participated this past summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment