Feb 26 Tip: Attend tonight's Thomas Merton Center Black History Month Lecture

Attend tonight's Thomas Merton Center Black History Month Lecture

(The February 26 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

Eighth Annual Thomas Merton Black History Month Lecture

Dorothy Cotton

"On the Journey Forward:
Merton and King as important guides"

Wednesday 26th February, 2014 - 7 pm

Frazier Hall, Bellarmine University
Free and Open to the Public

From 1960 to 1968, Dr. Dorothy Cotton was the Education Director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In that capacity, she worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders, directing the Citizenship Education Program (CEP).  As the Education Director she was considered one of the highest ranking women with the SCLC. She accompanied Dr. King when he received the Nobel Prize for Peace in Norway.

On April 4, 1968 she was at the Lorraine Motel in room 307 next door to Dr. Kings’ room, the day of his assassination.

After Dr. King's death, she served as the Vice President for Field Operations for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, Georgia where she was a leader and senior trainer for the Center in areas nonviolence and empowerment for leadership.  Under the Carter Administration, she served as the Southeastern Regional Director of ACTION, the Federal Government’s agency for volunteer programs from 1978 to 1981.

Dr. Cotton has traveled extensively throughout the world, including visits to the former Soviet Union, The People’s Republic of China, Switzerland, Africa, Vietnam, and Europe while participating in international workshops and discussions on a broad range of current social and humanitarian issues.

Dr. Cotton describes her work with the Citizen Education Program in her book If Your Back's Not Bent: The Role of the Citizenship Education Program in the Civil Rights Movement. 

Sponsored by: Campus Ministry; Interfaith Paths to Peace; M.A. in Spirituality Program; The Office of Multicultural Affairs; Theology Department.

For full details visit:
http://merton.org/Events/