Civil Rights

Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos and historians Annette Gordon-Reed and Michael Beschloss joined Harry Belafonte Jan. 13 for a far-reaching conversation on the history, legality and politics surrounding the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Read More

Legendary performer and social activist Harry Belafonte, award-winning historian Michael Beschloss and Harvard professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annette Gordon-Reed will appear at Vanderbilt Jan. 13 for a conversation marking the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Read More

A new Vanderbilt residence hall pays tribute to the legacy of civil rights pioneer and former Vanderbilt Divinity School assistant dean Kelly Miller Smith. Read More

Vanderbilt’s Department of Sociology celebrated its 80th anniversary Feb. 17 and 18 with visits from a civil rights lawyer and historian, and two prominent sociologists. Read More

Fifty years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, black individuals earn 20 percent less than their white counterparts for doing the same job and are twice as likely to live in poverty conditions, a Vanderbilt researcher says. Read More

Danny Glover will headline Vanderbilt University’s MLK Day celebration Monday, Jan. 20, at “An Evening with Danny Glover.” The theme for Vanderbilt’s commemoration is “Do Justice.” Read More

Author and Harvard University professor Kenneth W. Mack will deliver the 2014 Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture on Jan. 23 at Vanderbilt Law School. Read More

The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee has recognized Francis S. Guess, MBM’74,  for his commitment to equality, justice and the advancement of Middle Tennessee with the Kraft Humanitarian Award. He served six years on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and an additional 32 years on the Tennessee Human Rights… Read More

Watch video of the most recent presentation in the Food for Thought lunchtime series ­”Reflections of the Civil Rights Movement in Nashville: Then and Now,” which took place on November 5. In partnership with the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, the Vanderbilt University Office of Community, Neighborhood, and Government… Read More

Lewis Baldwin, who will retire in December after 30 years of scholarship devoted to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., will deliver the 2013 Harrod Lecture and then be honored at "The Voice of Conscience" conference. Read More

A sociologist from California will speak Oct. 25 at the law school about race in the workplace. Read More

Donald Cochran (photo courtesy of Belmont University) Donald Cochran, professor of law at Belmont University, will discuss the prosecution of Bobby Frank Cherry, who was convicted in 2002 for his involvement in the 1963 bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church that resulted in the death of… Read More

Vanderbilt will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington with a midday event Aug. 28. On the evening of Sept. 5, the Rev. Carolyn McKinstry will speak at a free public event in Benton Chapel. Read More

Ernest Campbell, who was instrumental in revitalizing Vanderbilt's Department of Sociology and Anthropology and known nationally for his research in race relations, desegregation and education, died July 28. Read More

The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., who has played key roles in the Civil Rights Movement and Vanderbilt University’s history, has donated a significant portion of his papers to Vanderbilt Libraries’ Special Collections. Read More

The Rev. James E. Lawson Jr. and John Seigenthaler, two legends of the Civil Rights era who viewed non-violent demonstrations in Nashville from very different seats in the 1960s, sat side-by-side Tuesday at a packed lunchtime conversation in Light Hall about the essentials of developing moral leadership. Read More

The Rev. James Lawson A public conversation between the Rev. James Lawson, a major civil rights leader who worked with Martin Luther King Jr. to implement the principles of nonviolence, and John Seigenthaler, who worked in the United States Department of Justice, is scheduled for noon Tuesday, Aug. 14. Read More

Digitized versions of the original reel-to-reel recordings that author Robert Penn Warren conducted with Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and other key leaders in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement are now searchable through the Who Speaks for the Negro website housed at Vanderbilt University. Read More

The “Thinking Out of the (Lunch) Box: Conversations with a Philosophical Flavor” series hosted by David Wood continues May 2 with a discussion led by Mona Frederick, executive director of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt, and Kate Rattner,… Read More

Vanderbilt Law School and the Black Law Student Association will bring in civil rights activist D’Army Bailey to speak Jan 12 in commemoration of the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Read More