Feb. 16, 2007
Contact: Rita Mitchell, University Relations
Civil Rights Conference honorees recognized at luncheon
MARTIN, Tenn. – Several special awards will be presented during the seventh annual Civil Rights Conference, slated Feb. 26-March 3, at the University of Tennessee at Martin. The awards luncheon is scheduled for 11:45 a.m., March 1, in Duncan Ballroom of Boling University Center.
This year’s honorees include:
• Marilou Awiakta has worked at all levels of civic involvement in the civil rights movements. She is the author of “Abiding Appalachia. Where Mountain and Atom Meet;” “Rising Fawn and the Fire Mystery. A True Story from the Choctaw Removal of 1833;” and “Selu: Seeking the Corn-Mother’s Wisdom.” Among her accomplishments, she founded the Far-Away Cherokee Association in 1982, which became the Native American Intertribal Association. Awiakta has worked with the Center for Research on Women at the University of Memphis. She has received awards for her work pertaining to women from the National Conference of Christians and Jews and National Indian Women’s Health Organization.
• Julian Bond was the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center and served in the Georgia General Assembly for more than 20 years. As a writer, teacher and lecturer, Bond has been involved with social change for more than 45 years. Being chairman of the board of directors of the NAACP since 1998 and holding a membership on the Southern Poverty Law Center board are among his most prominent roles in organizations dedicated to civil rights. As a civil rights leader and author of “A Time to Speak, A Time to Act,” narrator of the Academy Award-winning movie, “A Time for Justice,” and Oscar-nominated “The Shadow of Hate,” Bond is the keynote speaker for the Civil Rights Conference.
• Sidney Chism currently serves on the Shelby County board of commissioners. He has been an active business and community leader in Memphis for more than 30 years. President and CEO of S & L, Inc., he also has served as president of the Teamsters Local 1196 for 14 years; organizer of the Southern Conference of Teamsters for 10 years; and president of the Teamsters Joint Council 87 for nine years. He has taken a special interest in seeking to improve the justice system and has promoted significant changes including equitable treatment for all people.
• Anna Lee Cooke started her career in Haywood County, where she integrated the city library. She then worked at the Jackson-Madison County Library for 15 years before her appointment at Lane College’s library, a position she held for 25 years. In 1997, she received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Lane College. She was the first secretary of the Jackson Arts Council and a county solicitor for the American Cancer Society. She brought Ebony Fashion Fair to Jackson and started the Ms. Bronze West Tennessee Pageant in 1960. She has won several awards, including awards from the governor of Tennessee, the dedication of two rooms named in her honor at Lane College and a place in “Who’s Who of American Women, Tennessee Lives.”
• Brent Cox is a UT Martin instructor of history. Cox’s love of American Indian history is exemplified through his memberships in such organizations as the Trail of Tears Association, Chattanooga Intertribal Association and Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Alabama. In addition to being the recipient of the 2006 Tennessee Native American Eagle Award, Cox co-authored “Cherokee Proud” and authored “Heart of the Eagle: Dragging Canoe and the Emergence of the Chickamauga Confederacy.”
• Van Jones, a UT Martin alumnus, founded and serves as national executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. He is a leader in the national fight for alternatives to the U.S. incarceration industry and holds a law degree from Yale Law School. He is the recipient of such awards as Global Leader for Tomorrow, Reebok International Human Rights Award and Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellowship. He has been featured on such programs as CNN, BET and National Public Radio.
• Tom Kunesh, a Hunkpapa Lakota, has actively promoted civil rights for more than a decade and is one of seven commissioners of Indian Affairs in Tennessee. His experiences include being a professor at various institutions, a Russian and Farsi naval linguist for the U.S. Naval Intelligence and radio-traffic analyst as a 3rd class petty officer. Along with leading several protest marches to protect sacred sites, Kunesh also was a founding member of the Chattanooga Intertribal Association.
• Walton W. Harrison, M.D. (Nov. 28, 1920-Feb. 27, 2005), graduated from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1945. He served in the Air Force at Maxwell Field Station Hospital in Montgomery, Ala., from 1946 to 1958. After practicing in Los Angeles Children’s Hospital and the Christie Clinic in Champaign, Ill., he moved to Jackson and helped found the Children’s Clinic in 1952. Under Harrison’s leadership, the Children’s Clinic became the first in Jackson to integrate its entrance. During the 1960s, Harrison was a member of the Jackson Civil Action Council, a racially mixed group whose goal was to improve race relations. His concern for making medicine accessible to low-income patients led him to found a free clinic in 1986, which became the blueprint for the current Health and Healing Clinic located on Skyline Drive in Jackson. The Jackson Sun recognized him in the early 2000s for his work on behalf of racial equality in Jackson. His widow, Katherine Harrison, will accept his award.
• James. M. Lawson, Pennsylvania native, is a leader in nonviolence within the American Rights Movement. In the 1940s, he conducted sit-ins in northern cities and participated in some of the earlier freedom rides. As a faculty member at Vanderbilt University, the Rev. Lawson, who also attended Vanderbilt’s Divinity School, has worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and trained such civil rights leaders as Diane Nash, James Bevel, Marion Barry and John Lewis in his nonviolent tactics. In January 2007, Lawson participated in a three-day Freedom Ride commemorative program in Alabama alongside activists such as Jim Zwerg, Diane Nash, Bernard Lafayette, the Rev. C.T. Vivian and John Seigenthaler. Journalists and approximately 180 students, faculty and administrators from Vanderbilt, Fisk University, Tennessee State University and American Baptist also were present.
• William Little was born and raised in Memphis. He holds degrees from LeMoyne-Owen College and the University of Memphis and has pursued graduate studies from schools such as the University of California at Santa Clara, Southern California University, San Francisco State University and Northern Illinois University. In the 1950s, Little started covering sports for the Memphis World, then the Tri-State Defender in the early 1960s, where he held the position of sports editor for 25 years. Today, he still writes specials for the Tri-State Defender.
• Dr. Bobby Lovett has taught at Memphis Public Schools, Eureka College and Tennessee State University. He serves on the editorial boards for the “Arkansas Historical Quarterly” and “Tennessee Historical Quarterly,” board of directors of the Tennessee Historical Society and on the state review board for nomination of national historic sites for Tennessee. He has published several books including “The Civil Rights Movement in Tennessee: a Narrative History,” which won the Tennessee Book Award.
• Van Lynch, a Yorkville resident, was born in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. She now serves as chair of the Tennessee Commission of Indian Affairs, a group composed of only seven members. She is a graduate of Bethel College, teacher at Obion County and recipient of the Eagle Award. Since arriving in Tennessee, she has been active in American Indian affairs and civil rights. In the past, she spoke regularly to classes in West and Middle Tennessee about American Indians.
• Former Gov. Ned Ray McWherter is a native of Palmersville. After serving two terms in the House of Representatives, McWherter was elected speaker of the House, and he held this position longer than any previous House speaker in the state’s history. After being elected as the 46th governor of Tennessee, McWherter sponsored such legislation as the “Sunshine Law,” and he assisted minority groups, encouraged women to take leadership roles in legislature and pursued education reform programs. He has served on the state building commission joint fiscal review committee and the council on pensions and retirement, as well as the board of governors of the United States Postal Service, following his nomination by former President Bill Clinton. Organizations in which he participates include the Elks Club, Shriners Club, Eagles Club and Weakley County Chamber of Commerce.
• Dr. Charles Payne is a professor of African and African-American studies, history and sociology at Duke University. His honors include being a Carnegie Scholar, receiving “Choice Outstanding Academic Book” for authoring “I’ve Got the Light of Freedom” and “Getting What We Ask For.” He has served on various advisory and editorial boards, including those for the University Press of Kentucky series, “Civil Rights and the Struggle for Black Equality in the Twentieth Century.”
• Maxine Smith made education and civil rights leadership prominent aspects of her adult life. Her positions of responsibility include being a board member of the NAACP since 1957; serving on the Memphis Board of Education for 24 years; being elected president of this board from 1991-1992; and serving as a member of the Tennessee Board of Regents and the National Civil Rights Museum. Her involvement with the NAACP has aided her in promoting educational equity for African-American children in Memphis. She received an honorary doctorate from LeMoyne-Owen College and was awarded the “Freedom Award” by the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
Cost of the awards luncheon is $15. For details about the conference, go to the Web site at http://www.utm.edu/staff/accarls/civilrights, or contact Dr. Alice-Catherine Carls, conference coordinator, at 731-881-7472 or email accarls@utm.edu.
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