UNC Asheville’s annual commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. will feature a keynote address by the award-winning journalist, author and civil rights pioneer Charlayne Hunter-Gault, free and open to everyone, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 21, in the Highsmith Student Union Blue Ridge Room on campus.
Master classes, workshops on social justice, documentary film, music, dance, and spoken word from blues-based poet Arthur Flowers will also be featured as part of the University commemoration of Dr. King.
Tuesday, Jan. 21 – Charlayne Hunter-Gault – A veteran journalist who gained fame as longtime national and international correspondent for the PBS NewsHour, Charlayne Hunter-Gault has also reported for CNN, NPR, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. She is the author of four books, and a pioneer of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement who successfully challenged segregation in court, and was the first black woman to attend the University of Georgia. (a more complete bio follows below)
- Master Class: Up Close and Personal: A Chat with Charlayne Hunter-Gault, moderated by UNC Asheville Assistant Professor of English Mildred Barya – 4 p.m., Highsmith Student Union Room 228.
- Keynote Address: From Jim Crow America to Apartheid South Africa and Beyond – An Activist Journalist’s Journey – 7 p.m., Highsmith Student Union Blue Ridge Room.
- Support for Charlayne Hunter-Gault’s visit to UNC Asheville comes from Biltmore Farms Hotels, Blue Ridge Public Radio, and Our State