Civil rights historian to speak in Akron
Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, associate professor of history at Ohio State University, will speak Friday, Nov. 10, at the inaugural John Brown Institute Fall Lecture sponsored by the Summit County Historical Society.
The title of the talk is “Above All Else Tell the Truth: The Power and Importance of Local History.”
Jeffries, who has served on Ohio State’s faculty since 2003, teaches courses on civil rights and the Black Power movement. He has received OSU’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, the university’s highest award in teaching, and the Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award.
He has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NPR, CNN, MSNBC and other news outlets.
Jeffries is author of the book “Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt” and hosts the podcast “Teaching Hard History.” He served as lead historian for the $27 million renovation of the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, the site of the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Doors will open at 5 p.m. Friday at HÜG, the Highland Üniversal Gatheringspot, at 133 Merriman Road in Akron. Tickets are $35 for general admission, $20 for students and $125 for patrons. Admission includes light refreshments. There will be a cash bar.
Seating is limited. Register at EventBrite or call the Summit County Historical Society office at 330-535-1120.
Summit County abolitionist John Brown was executed for leading an 1859 raid on a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in an attempt to ignite a slave rebellion. The John Brown House, where he lived with his family in the 1840s, is a historic site at 514 Diagonal Road in Akron.
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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, civil rights historian, to speak in Akron
