The Norbert O. Schedler Honors College at the University of Central Arkansas will have a campus- and community-wide conversation about topics in human rights in a week-long series of events, Challenge Week 2013.
The theme is “The State of the Dream In Arkansas,” and will feature presentations by distinguished speakers on women’s rights, African-American rights, and gay rights, including former State Representative Linda Tyler on Oct. 28, Minnijean Brown-Trickey of the Little Rock Nine on Oct. 29, and Lecia Brooks of the Southern Poverty Law Center Oct. 30.
According to event organizers, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and in recognition of President Barack Obama’s inaugural address where he historically linked “Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall,” drawing a parallel between three rights struggles of American history: women’s rights, civil rights, and gay rights.
The keynote address will be at 7 p.m. Tues, Oct. 29, at the College of Business Auditorium. Brown-Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine and a nationally-known speaker on the topic of civil rights will give a talk, titled “Return To Little Rock.” She will reflect on her own involvement in the iconic struggle for African-American equality and the progress that Arkansas has made since the Little Rock Central High School crisis.
Challenge Week 2013 will also include a presentation by Brooks, outreach director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, on the state of gay rights; a panel discussion on the state of women’s rights, featuring Representative Tyler, and moderated by the director of UCA’s Gender Studies program, Taine Duncan; and a presentation by honors students involved in the study of civil rights movements this semester.
All Challenge Week events, taking place October 25-30 on campus, are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided at each event. Please contact Donna Bowman, Schedler Honors College Associate Dean, for more information at 501.450.3631.
