Reconsidering Little Rock:50 Years After
the Start of School Integration Symposium
to Be Held at UC San Diego Nov. 13-15
Former Little Rock student and noted civil rights activist are among speakers

October 17, 2007

By Pat Jacoby

The 50th anniversary of the attempt by nine African American students to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Ark.—and its application to current events—will be marked with a Nov. 13-15 symposium at the University of California, San Diego. All meetings are free and open to the public.

Dr. Terrence Roberts, now a clinical psychologist and desegregation consultant, will describe the tumultuous days in 1957 when he and other African American students attempted to attend classes at Central High School in his talk, Lessons from Little Rock. Julian Bond, civil rights activist and current chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will discuss Civil Rights—Now and Then.

The symposium will open at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13 with Dr. Roberts’ address in the Weiss Forum Theatre in the Theatre District on the UCSD campus. A panel on The Path from Brown to Little Rock: the Legal Legacy will follow at 8:30 p.m., with panelists to discuss the legal legacy of 1954’s groundbreaking case, Brown v. Board of Education, through recent Court decisions. Panelists will include Judge Randa Trapp, former president of the local chapter of the NAACP and adjunct faculty, USD; Michal Belknap, professor, California Western School of Law and adjunct professor of History, UCSD; Glenn Smith, professor, California Western School of Law; Andrea Guerrero, chair, Immigrant Rights Consortium of San Diego County, and Ed Spriggs, associate vice chancellor of Student Affairs, UCSD, moderator.

The keynote address Nov. 14 will be presented by Bond at 7:30 p.m. in the Price Center Ballroom. A panel, From Lemon Grove to Little Rock and Back Again: Schools, Segregation and Society, will follow at 8:30 p.m. with a focus on social ramifications of desegregation over the decades. Panelists will include Robert Alvarez, professor, Ethnic Studies, UCSD; Hugh (Bud) Mehan, professor of Sociology and director of the Center for Research on Educational Equity, Access and Teaching Excellence (CREATE), UCSD; Vincent Riveroll, director, Gompers Charter Middle School; Roberts; Nora Gordon, professor of Economics, UCSD, and Cecil Lytle, professor of Music, UCSD, moderator.

A Celebration in Arts and Media will be held at 7:30 in the Weiss Forum, to include a piano performance by Lytle and accompanists Michael Morgan, bass baritone, and Marshall Hawkins, string bass; a program of dramatic material performed by noted actress Karole Foreman, Marshall College artist in residence, and a screening of the Little Rock segment of PBS’s heralded Eyes on the Prize introduced by Joseph Watson, UCSD vice chancellor emeritus.

The symposium is sponsored by UCSD’s Thurgood Marshall College and Earl Warren College in partnership with California Western School of Law and Helen Edison Lecture Series. Co-chairs are Allan Havis, Marshall College provost, and Steven Adler, Warren College provost.

The event is made possible by Thurgood Marshall College, Earl Warren College, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, Helen Edison Lecture Series, California Western School of Law, Vice Chancellor of  Student Affairs Penny Rue, Council of Provosts, UCSD Libraries, Office of Research Affairs, Office of Graduate Studies, Dean of Social Sciences, Dean of Arts & Humanities, African American Studies Minor, Law and Society Program, Department of Theatre and Dance, and Department of Music.

For further information see http://marshall.ucsd.edu/lr9/ or call Shamara Madrid 858 534-1709.

 

Media Contacts: Pat Jacoby, 858 534-7404