What/Who: “How Does Change Happen?” the speech to be delivered by famed activist and professor Angela Davis at the 2008 George E. Kent Lecture — held on campus annually in celebration of Black History Month. The event is free and open to the public and is hosted by the University of Chicago’s Organization of Black Students.
When: 7-9 p.m. Thursday, January 24
Where: Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Background: Davis is a professor at the University of California and a longtime activist on issues in the African-American community, including feminism and social change. Davis has associations with the Black Panther Party, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Communist Party USA. She is founder of Critical Resistance, a grassroots anti-prison organization. Most famously Davis is known for her involvement in an attempted Black Panther prison break and the murder of Judge Harold Haley. Following those events, Davis was on the run from authorities, but later caught and arrested. She was acquitted of all charges, but the trial remains one of the most well known in United States history.
The Kent Lecture is held in honor of George Kent, the former Chicago professor, who taught in English Language & Literature from 1970 until his death in 1982. Each year, the Organization of Black Students brings a prominent member of the African-American community to campus to speak on relevant social issues. Past speakers have included Cornel West, Nikki Giovanni and Gwendolyn Brooks. This will be Davis’s second time delivering the Kent Lecture.
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
