University of Southern Maine

News Releases

USM Event Celebrates the Lives of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks

January 13, 2006

The lives of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. will be celebrated at the University of Southern Maine from 4-6 p.m., Tuesday, January 24, on the Seventh Floor of the Glickman Family Library, Forest Ave., Portland.  The event will be followed by a reception, and is free and open to the public.

The evening will begin with a viewing of “Awakenings,” the first segment of the PBS series “Eyes on the Prize” that looks at the years 1954 through 1956. “Awakenings” documents two events that focused America’s attention of the oppression of African Americans — the lynching of 14-year-old Emmitt Till in 1955, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began because Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give public bus seat to a white man.

The event will continue with a community discussion featuring Maureen Elgermsman Lee, USM associate professor of history and faculty scholar for the African American Collection of Maine; Wendy Chapkis, USM associate professor of sociology and women’s studies; Wells Staley-Mays, a member of the NAACP Portland Branch executive committee; and Rebecca Hershey, University of Maine School of Law student and president of the Black Law Student Association. Lee’s book, “Black Bangor: African Americans in a Maine Community, 1880-1950” was released this fall by the University Press of New England.

This event is co-sponsored by USM and the NAACP Portland Branch.

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