Friday, January 5, 2006 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Contact: Ken West, Vice President of Communications and Public Relations

Phone: 615-329-8767

Email: kwest@fisk.edu



Contact: Greg Bryant, Public Relations Assistant

Phone: 615-329-8566

Email: gbryant@fisk.edu



Fisk Welcomes Educator and Civil Rights Leader Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski as Keynote Speaker at MLK Convocation



University of Maryland at Baltimore County (UMBC) President Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski will be the convocation speaker at Fisk University’s commemoration of the legacy and contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 10 a.m. in Fisk Memorial Chapel.



For over thirty years, Hrabowski has remained dedicated to the education of underrepresented populations. He says that contemporary civil rights struggles revolve around academic preparation of young people particularly in the areas of math and science.



“Sadly, less than two percent of the research scientists and engineers produced each year in America, and fewer than four percent of the nation’s new social scientists are African American,” Hrabowski said. “Like African American children of the 1960’s, those in the 21st century must focus on being the best and believing that knowledge is power.”



While serving as provost at UMBC in 1988, Hrabowski developed an initiative called the Meyerhoff Scholars Program for the purpose of training young undergraduate scholars for graduate study in the sciences and engineering. He was cited for these contributions and became one of the first recipients of the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring in 1996.



Before he gained recognition in the field of education, Dr. Hrabowski was an important contributor to the struggle for human rights in the early 1960s. At the age of twelve, Hrabowski was commissioned to lead a group of youth from Kelly Ingram Park to Birmingham City Hall during the Children’s Crusade in May of 1963. After meeting Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor on the steps of Birmingham’s City Hall, Hrabowski and his followers were sent to juvenile justice centers and were included among the 969 protestors arrested for non-violent demonstrations. Four months later, his friend and classmate Cynthia Wesley was one of four girls killed in the bombing of Birmingham, Alabama’s 16th Avenue Baptist Church.



While in jail, Hrabowski attempted to comfort his followers who grew weary and faced school suspensions upon their release. After a week of detainment, the children were released and heard words of encouragement from Dr. Martin Luther King.



“I will never forget after several days of trying to keep the kids from crying,” Hrabowski said, “Dr. King came to a place outside of the jail – and we could look through the bars – we had all of our parents there, and they were singing songs. And he said something I will never forget. He said, ‘What you do this day, children, will have an impact on children who have not been born.’”



Born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Hrabowski graduated at 19 from Hampton Institute with highest honors in mathematics. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he received his M.A. (mathematics) and four years later his Ph.D. (higher education administration/statistics) at age 24.



Hrabowski serves as a consultant to the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. He also is a member of several corporate and civic boards that include the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Constellation Energy Group, the France-Merrick Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation (Chair), McCormick & Company, Inc., Mercantile Safe Deposit & Trust Company, and the Urban Institute.

Fisk’s convocation on January 11 is the first of many events in Nashville to honor Dr. King. On Monday January 15, at 3:30 P.M., Fisk alumna and attorney Rita Sanders Geier will be the speaker for Vanderbilt University Law School’s Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture. Later at 6:30 P.M., the renowned Fisk Jubilee Singers will sing during a candlelight vigil in Vanderbilt’s Benton Chapel.

Since 1985, Fisk University has commemorated the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As the civil rights era gained momentum in the late 1950's, Dr. King gave the first of many civil rights speeches in Fisk's Memorial Chapel. King's appearances at Fisk called attention to an active student body already engaged in non-violent combat against racism. Even before activists in the early 1980s worked to gain a national holiday for Dr. King, Fisk was one of the first Nashville institutions to hold commemorative events in King's honor.

Fisk University produces more African Americans who go on to earn doctoral degrees in the natural sciences than any college or university in the nation.

For more information about Fisk’s MLK Convocation, call 329-6214.

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Born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Hrabowski graduated at 19 from Hampton Institute with highest honors in mathematics. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he received his M.A. (mathematics) and four years later his Ph.D. (higher education administration/statistics) at age 24.

Dude was a "boy genius" at Hampton. He's an engaging speaker, too.

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Originally posted by DrBlackbeard:
[QUOTE]

Dude was a "boy genius" at Hampton. He's an engaging speaker, too.

Met him and the bro. is a scholar, down to earth and from the "Ham". He took the chapel by storm.

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Originally posted by THE DREAMER:

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Originally posted by DrBlackbeard:
[QUOTE]

Dude was a "boy genius" at Hampton. He's an engaging speaker, too.

Met him and the bro. is a scholar, down to earth and from the "Ham". He took the chapel by storm.

Yea, we use to call him the "Cool Alpha". We would inviye him to all of our KAPPA parties.

He told me that I should have been an Alpha.