September 28, 2006 - Civil rights activist Diane Nash will speak Thursday, Oct. 5, on the campus of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.

Her presentation, “The Nonviolent Movement of the 1960s: A Legacy for Today,” begins at 7 p.m. in the Student Union Auditorium. It is free and open to the public. Co-sponsors are the Lecture-Concert Series and the ASU Office of Diversity.

Nash, leader of the 1960 sit-in movement which opened lunch counters in downtown Nashville to blacks, became involved in the nonviolent movement in 1959, when she was a student at Fisk University. She was one of the founding students of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in 1960, and was a coordinator of the Freedom Ride from Birmingham to Jackson in 1961.

Nash was appointed by President Kennedy to a national committee that promoted passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The John F. Kennedy Library presented Ms. Nash with its “Distinguished American Award” in March of 2003 and she received the LBJ Award for Leadership in Civil Rights in 2004. She has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Today Show, the Spike Lee film Four Little Girls, and Eyes on the Prize.

The next Lecture-Concert event will be Comic Fred Burns who will present “The Stand-Up Comedy of Fred Burns” on Tuesday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m. in the Student Union Auditorium.

For more details, please contact Dr. Gil Fowler, associate dean for The Honors College, at 870-972-2308 or via email at gfowler@astate.edu or visit http://honors.astate.edu.

The Lecture-Concert Series presents diverse programs to enrich the cultural life of the campus, community, and region.

To nominate a speaker or presenter for a future Lecture-Concert Series event, please contact one of the committee members listed on The Honors College web site, listed under the heading of Lecture-Concert.