Civil rights activist and journalist Myrlie Evers-Williams will be the keynote speaker for a convocation co-hosted by the Student African-American Society and the SU’s newly re-charted NAACP chapter.

The organizations announced Saturday the fall convocation will be held on Sept. 12 in Huntington Beard Crouse’s Gifford Auditorium at 6 p.m.

Evers-Williams served as chairman of the NAACP from 1995 to 1998; is a life-long civil rights activist and worked alongside with her late husband Medgar Evers, according to NAACP’s national website.

Her experience in activism and in the NAACP made Evers-Williams the ideal speaker, said Danielle McCoy, president of the Student African-American Society and one of the event coordinators.

“This year, we will be collaborating with the NAACP chapter in light of them being reinstated on campus as well as sharing some of the same common goals as an organization,” McCoy said.

In previous years, the society hosted the fall convocation and brought influential African-American scholars such as Michael Eric Dyson and Cornel West to campus. It is the organization’s largest event, McCoy said.

“Myrlie Evers-Williams is a true example of someone who knows her purpose in life and lives by it every single day,” McCoy said. “I am very confident that her keynote address will spark the fire in a lot of my peers in hopes of motivating them to be a part of the change.”

Evers-Williams is also known for her commitment to seeking justice for the death of her husband, who was murdered in 1963 by a member of the White Citizens’ Council, according to the website.

Before his murder, both Evers and Evers-Williams opened and managed the first NAACP Mississippi State Office, according to the website.

“When her husband was alive, she worked closely beside him on issues such as voting rights for African Americans and desegregation in schools, which coincide with some of the same issues that we are still facing now in 2013,” McCoy added, who is also a senior political science and African-American studies major.

Ronald Taylor, president of SU’s NAACP chapter, said he hopes Evers-Williams’ experience with the civil rights movement 50 years ago will guide students to discuss what the major issues affecting African-Americans are today and what can be done to solve them.

“Myrlie brings a great deal of insight we’re hoping that she’ll be able to further conversation for our generation,” he said.

Taylor said one of his goals for the upcoming event is to educate students on some of the major policy discussions that are relevant in the nation.

Taylor described issues such as high incarceration rates, education, gun violence and the Trayvon Martin case as some of the issues he and his organization hope to start a dialogue about on campus.

“Educationally, why is it that you see African-American men in particular more so incarcerated rather than in school or in colleges or obtaining an education?” Taylor said. “That’s a conversation we’re really going to be having this semester.”

[email protected]

Published on September 3, 2013 at 2:20 am

Contact Rahimon: [email protected]