Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker to Speak on Feb. 9th!
VCU College of Humanities and Sciences and The School of Mass Communications present "The Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Role of the Press in the Civil Rights Movement� by Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker. Thursday February 9, 2006, 11:00 a.m., Student Commons, Second Floor, Commonwealth Ballrooms (free and open to the public).
Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker's work in civil and human rights brought him to the attention of a seminary friend, Martin Luther King, Jr. King installed Walker in Atlanta as the first full-time Executive Director of the fledgling SCLC in 1960. Under Walker's administration, SCLC grew into a national power in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
Dr. Walker enjoys a well established record as pastor/theologian, civil rights leader, and cultural historian. He is a double graduate of Virginia Union University (VUU Undergraduate Studies class of '50 and The Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, '53), and holds a doctorate from Rochester Theological Center. His graduate studies and research have taken him to the University of Ife in Nigeria and the University of Ghana. An exhibiting artist as well as a composer of sacred music, Jesse Jackson has called him "Harlem's Renaissance Man" because of his multiple gifts and varied careers.
Dr. Walker is regarded internationally as a human rights activist, recognized as the first African-American to meet with Chairman Yasir Arafat since the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip and Jericho, and known as a church historian and prolific author, having preached on every continent with the exception of Australia. He is considered the nation's leading authority on the music of the African-American Church. His experience in government includes ten years as Urban Affairs Specialist to Governor Nelson Rockefeller, serving as a troubleshooter, quieting racial tensions that accompanied school desegregation and labor disputes.
Dr. Walker’s visit is one of several events celebrating Black History Month at VCU and is offered in conjunction with the course MASC/AFAM 474-"Minorities and the Mass Media" and the Association of Black Communicators.
For additional information, please contact Dr. Clarence W. Thomas at (804) 827-3772.