MLK’s timely legacy recalled

The timely topic of “Voter Suppression in America” will be the subject of historian and educator Carol Anderson’s talk at the 14th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration this Sunday, Jan. 19 at Westport Country Playhouse.

The timely topic of “Voter Suppression in America” will be the subject of historian and educator Carol Anderson’s talk at the 14th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration this Sunday, Jan. 19 at Westport Country Playhouse.

“…We are honored to welcome Dr. Carol Anderson to this year’s event,” said Harold Bailey Jr., chairman of TEAM Westport, which is co-sponsoring the celebration, along with The Westport Library, Westport Country Playhouse, Westport/Weston Interfaith Council and Westport/Weston Interfaith Clergy. “She is one of the nation’s foremost experts on voting suppression and voter disinformation. Her body of research and historical perspectives directly intersects with the issues most critical to the future of our nation at this time.”

Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler professor of African American Studies at Emory University. She is the author of “One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy”; “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide,” a New York Times bestseller; “Eyes Off the Prize:  The United Nations and the African American Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1955”; and “Bourgeois Radicals:  The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1960.” 

Anderson’s address will be followed by a moderated audience Q&A and a book signing, with books available for purchase at the event. In addition, there will be performances by opera singer Helena Brown and students from Trumbull’s Regional Center for the Arts. Complimentary refreshments will be served in the playhouse lobby after the presentation.

This event is made possible in part by and is included in the Westport Library’s 2019–20 WestportREADS program “Our Vote. Our Future,” a year-long series commemorating the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave American women the right to vote.

The annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration began in 2006 as an interfaith gathering, coordinated by the Interfaith Council of Westport and Weston.

The event, which begins at 3 p.m., is free.  However, advance registration is recommended through the playhouse box office at 203-227-4177 or by email at rsvp@westportplayhouse.org.

– Georgette Gouveia

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