UM to Host Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Lecture via ZOOM

The University of Montana, in honor of the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, will present a lecture via ZOOM by a prominent professor from Penn State University on Thursday, January 14.

Professor of History and Director of the African American Studies Program at the University of Montana Tobin Miller Shearer provides these details.

“We've invited Dr. Crystal Sanders from Penn State University to come here virtually to give a lecture this year on Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists that we may not know as much about,” said Miller Shearer. “We had a conversation with the Black Student Union and they wanted to hear about the struggles that those asking that those African American civil rights activists face as well as their white allies during the civil rights era. And Dr. Sanders is well equipped to give us that very lecture.”

Miller Shearer invited the public to join the lecture and provided a preview of what they might learn.

“They'll learn not only some of the big, broad strokes history of how the civil rights movement unfolded, but the specific struggles of those who participated in it, and how they were able to non violently and democratically bring about very positive change for this country,” he said.

Because of technical limitations for ZOOM, Miller Shearer encouraged the public to sign up in advance for the lecture as soon as possible.

“Go to the African American Studies website at the University of Montana,” he said. “You put those words into a Google search bar, and you'll find our African American Studies webpage. The lecture is listed there. You click on that, and that'll give you a link to register for it. It is absolutely free, sponsored by the American Studies program, our President and Provost office as well as the Black Student Union at the University of Montana.”

Sanders will virtually deliver “Back Then They Didn’t Want Me: A Look at Maligned, Misused and Misremembered African American Activists” at 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 14.