Free Public Event Open to All

Saturday, February 13
1:00-3:00 p.m.
Main Library

A New Dialogue in Civil Rights featuring NPR’s Juan Williams

Marking 50 years after the Nashville student-led demonstrations and sit-ins, this community program moderated by National Public Radio senior correspondent Juan Williams (Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America—and What We Can Do About It) addresses the progression and evolution of civil rights while forging a path toward the next 50 years of transformation of community, state and country. Connecting grassroots, political, business, multi-ethnic and multi-generational populations as well as scholars, activists and community members, the program aims to foster dialog and address civil rights for a millennial generation. Panelists include Rev. James Lawson, Betty Flores and Daniel Losen. This program is made possible through the generous support of the Nashville Public Library Foundation.

Featured Speaker: Juan Williams
Juan Williams is one of America’s best known and most respected journalists, authors, and political commentators. While his commentary and his interests have spanned the front page of the newspaper, his focus on civil rights has ranged from writing the companion book to the television series Eyes On The Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 to commentary on his weekly appearances on National Public Radio and on Fox Sunday News. For 23 years he was editorial writer, op-ed columnist, White House correspondent and national correspondent for the Washington Post, and has written for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.  As a young journalist, his six-part series on problems in District of Columbia schools received a Pulitzer nomination, and his best-selling biography of the nation’s first African-American Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall-American Revolutionary, was critically acclaimed and achieved bestseller status. 

Panelist: Rev. James Lawson
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called Jim Lawson "the greatest teacher of nonviolence in America." Rev. Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilt Divinity School in 1960 because of his teachings of nonviolent resistance that empowered the Nashville student sit-in movement. A lifelong teacher of nonviolent resistance, he has impacted civil rights struggles across the nation. In 2006, more than 40 years after being expelled, Lawson returned to Vanderbilt University as Distinguished University Professor for the 2006-07 academic year. He continues his involvement in civil rights causes, including immigrants’ rights in the United States and workers’ rights to a living wage.

Panelist: Betty Flores
In 1996, Betty Flores—after a successful career in the banking industry—was elected mayor of Laredo, Texas, a city straddling the U.S border with Mexico.  She was twice re-elected, governing the city during a period when the NAFTA Trade Agreement led to unprecedented growth of the city, and she served as Chair of the Cities and Borders Task Force of the U.S. Conference for Mayors. Ms. Flores has spoken with clarity on virtually all the cross-border civil rights issues including unemployment, drugs, immigration, education, and activities of the U.S. Border Patrol. The Woman’s Chamber of Commerce of Texas named her “Texas Woman of the Century.”

Panelist: Daniel Losen
Daniel Losen’s civil rights activities have focused on education and poverty and have been national in scope. After graduating from the Georgetown University Law Center, Mr. Losen was a legal services advocate for economically disadvantaged students in Massachusetts.  Prior to that time he spent ten years as a teacher in Massachusetts public schools, and was a founder of an alternative public school. He currently is a Lecturer at Harvard Law School, and serves as Senior Education Law and Policy Advocate for The Civil Rights Project at UCLA.  His recent work has involved examining the problem of the school to prison pipeline, and the effectiveness of the No Child Left Behind Act.