Civil Rights

Andrew Maraniss, who wrote Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South, is working with Vanderbilt students from a unique position this academic year. He is spending part of his time as a writer-in-residence at The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons, where he is… Read More

Architectural treasures, Broadway plays on film, and a first-time preview of a Nashville Ballet performance are among the rich subjects offered this fall by Vanderbilt's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Read More

Vanderbilt recently celebrated Equality Weekend, a two-day event that honored 21 of Nashville’s civil rights leaders and marked the 50th anniversary of Vanderbilt breaking the SEC’s color barrier with men’s basketball players Perry Wallace and Godfrey Dillard. The 21 leaders were honored at the Commodores’ men’s basketball game on Feb. 18 and the women’s game on Feb. 19—both Vanderbilt victories. Read More

Vanderbilt athletics is set to honor 21 of Nashville's leading civil rights figures at its men's and women's basketball games this weekend, when the players will wear special Nike uniforms. Read More

Standing on the dais from which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke, Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos charged college students gathered Saturday at Fisk University to live out the civil rights leader's legacy. Read More

The theme for this year’s commemoration is “Justice and Democracy? Revolutionizing our American Myths.” Read More

New first-of-its-kind research from two Vanderbilt Law School economists contradicts conventional wisdom and finds a female applicant strongly raises her chances of getting hired if she gives personal information clarifying her resume gaps. Read More

Diane Nash, one of the most respected leaders of the civil rights movement, will deliver a lecture Thursday, Feb. 25, named in honor of Walter Murray, a Vanderbilt alumnus, who made history by blazing a trail at the university. Read More

The civil rights documentary "Eyes on Mississippi" will have its Nashville premiere Feb. 25 at the John Seigenthaler Center at Vanderbilt University. Read More

Author and alumnus Robert Penn Warren's impact on civil rights is among the topics of a Feb. 10 panel discussion with '60s activists Robert Moses and Ruth Turner Perot along with the Rev. Kelly Miller Smith Jr., pastor of the historic First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill. Read More

The Rev. James Lawson, whom Martin Luther King Jr. called “the leading nonviolence theorist in the world,” will deliver the keynote address at Vanderbilt University’s MLK Day celebration Monday, Jan. 18. The theme for the commemoration is “Apathy to Action: Activism, Allyship and Anti-Racism.” Read More

An acclaimed poet who came of age in the South during the turmoil and unrest of 1960s and '70s civil rights struggles will deliver the 2015 Cole Lectures at Benton Chapel Oct. 8 and 9. Read More

Honoring and building upon the contributions of the late John L. Seigenthaler to the civil rights movement is the goal of a new endowed chair being established at Vanderbilt University through a gift from the James Stephen Turner Family Foundation. Read More

The newly named George Barrett Social Justice Program at Vanderbilt Law School pays tribute to the late civil rights attorney through a generous gift to endow the program by 1993 alumnus Darren Robbins. Read More

Watch video of the most recent presentation in the Food for Thought lunchtime series which took place on April 21. In partnership with the National Museum of African American Music and Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Vanderbilt presents a two-part Food for Thought series entitled The Soundtrack of Civil Rights. Panel… Read More

Morality is not declining in the modern world, says Edward Rubin, University Professor of Law and Political Science, in a new book. Instead, a new morality is replacing the previous one. Read More

The man sitting next to me on the night of Dec. 3, 2014, was Perry Wallace, and many of the 400 people approaching him were fellow Vanderbilt alumni, including members of Wallace’s Class of 1970. It was an exhilarating and emotional scene at the Nashville Public Library, the official launch of my biography of Wallace (Strong Inside), the first African American basketball player in the Southeastern Conference. Read More

The new Callie House Research Center for the Study of Black Cultures and Politics, named for a former slave who led a group for reparations, will be celebrated March 12 with the inaugural lecture by Mary Frances Berry. Read More

Lewis Baldwin, an emeritus religious studies professor who has dedicated his teaching and research to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., will be in Selma, Alabama, March 6 for the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday." Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center staff, faculty, students and guests packed 208 Light Hall Monday to honor the life and legacy of the late Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. Read More