Free tickets now available for graduate students at the SBI Ticket Office (221 Student Union). 1 per UB ID.

Berry:
Dr. Mary Frances Berry was appointed by President Carter and confirmed by the Senate as a Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. After President Reagan fired her for criticizing his civil rights policies, she sued him in federal district court and won reinstatement. In 1993, President Clinton designated her Chairperson of the Civil Rights Commission. She was reappointed to a six-year term in January 1999. She resigned from the Commission on December 7, 2004.

Berry was also one of the founders of the Free South Africa Movement, which initiated protests at the South African Embassy in the successful struggle for democracy in South Africa. She was arrested and jailed several times in the cause. Berry was Assistant Secretary for Education in the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare during the Carter Administration. As Assistant Secretary, she gave general supervision to federal education programs. Prior to her service at HEW, Berry was a Provost at the University of Maryland-College Park, and then Chancellor of the University of Colorado- Boulder. Dr. Berry was educated at Howard University, the University of Michigan (Ph.D. in history), and the University of Michigan Law School. She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.

Berry is a Vice President of the American Historical Association and President of the Organization of American Historians. She has received 32 honorary doctoral degrees and numerous awards including the NAACP’s Image Award, the Rosa Parks Award of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Ebony Magazine Black Achievement Award, the Hubert Humphrey Award of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the American Bar Association’s Spirit of Excellence Award. She is currently the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.

Berry’s books include The Pig Farmer’s Daughter and Other Tales of Law and Justice: Race and Sex in the Courts, 1865 to the Present; Long Memory: The Black Experience in America (with co-author John W. Blassingame); Black Resistance White Law: A History of Constitutional Racism in America; The Politics of Parenthood: Child Care, Women’s Rights, and the Myth of the Good Mother; My Face is Black is True, Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations; And Justice for All: The United States Commission on Civil Rights and the Continuing Struggle for Freedom in America; and Power in Words (with co-author J. Gottheimer).

Evers-Williams:
From the moment Myrlie Evers-Williams faced the murder of her husband, civil rights activist Medger Evers, she became a pivotal figure in the civil rights movement. For over three decades, she has fought to carry on his legacy, never relenting in her determination to change the face of race relations in this country.

Channeling her personal tragedy into triumph, Evers-Williams has become a symbol of courage and perseverance, steadfast in her march towards social justice. She made history in becoming the first female chairperson to lead the NAACP. Elected during a tumultuous time when the nation’s oldest civil rights organization was rife with financial troubles and scandal, her leadership rejuvenated the agency, helping ensure its relevance for generations to come.

Evers-Williams founded the Medgar Evers Institute to promote education, training, and economic development while exposing new generations of students to the cause for which her husband died. She was also instrumental in launching “Youth for Unity,” a diversity education program designed to fight injustice and intolerance.

She does not rest, driven by strength and faith, determined not to allow lessons of the past to be forgotten. Aiming to infuse the youth of today with hope, tolerance, and an understanding of the struggles our nation has faced, Evers-Williams encourages everyone to work together: “If we can help them understand the past and encourage them to creatively address today’s human rights challenges, they will be in a much better position to help shape the future.”