FLORENCE – The University of North Alabama will welcome activist, journalist and humanitarian, Shaun King to campus to discuss civil rights, Thursday, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m., in Norton Auditorium.
King, who is currently a writer for The Intercept and the Writer-In-Residence at Harvard Law Schools’ Fair Punishment Project, will speak on the topic of Civil Rights Today-The New Civil Rights Movement.
According to King, the deadliest hate crime against African Americans in our lifetimes didn’t happen in 1955 or 1965, but in Charleston in 2015. More unarmed African Americans were shot and killed by American police in 2015 than in any year of lynching since 1922.
“Ten times more African Americans are currently incarcerated today than they were in 1955.
It’s hard to know a moment in history when you are in it, but this much I know: We are in a painful and peculiar point in American history. So much is wrong that it’s hard to keep up, but we must,” said King.
King’s bio said he offers an articulate and historically grounded take on the most pressing problems of the day. He has now spoken in 35 states, on over 100 college campuses, in jails and prisons, and in corporate boardrooms.
UNA’s Housing & Residence Life and the Department of Sociology will sponsor the event, which is free to campus and the local community.
For more information: https://www.una.edu/housing/