Congressman John Lewis To Deliver Founders Day Address
Congressman John Lewis To Speak, Receive Honorary Degree at Knox College
John Lewis, a United States Representative from Georgia and long-time
leader in the civil rights movement, will deliver the convocation address at
Knox College's Founders Day celebration at 11 a.m., Monday, Feb. 15, in Harbach Theatre, Ford Center for the Fine Arts, on the Knox campus in Galesburg,
Illinois. This year Knox is marking its 162nd anniversary, as well as the 30th
anniversary of the campus group Allied Blacks for Liberty and Equality. The
convocation is free and open to the public.
In recognition of his work in civil rights and public service, Lewis will be awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree. One of the founders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Lewis led numerous desegregation protests during the 1960's. He subsequently worked in Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign; director of the Voter Education Project and from 1977 to 1980 as director of ACTION, the federal volunteer agency. He was elected to the Atlanta City Council in 1981 and to Congress in 1986. He is currently Chief Deputy Democratic Whip in the House of Representatives. Lewis recently published a book, Walking With The Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, about his work in civil rights and public action. Following the convocation there will be a book-signing reception in the lobby of the Ford Center. Knox College and the City of Galesburg were founded by a group of abolitionists from upstate New York, who came to western Illinois in the early 1830's. The College's charter was issued by the Illinois legislature on Feb. 15, 1837. In the 1850's the first black US senator attended Knox's preparatory academy, and in 1870, Knox became the first college in Illinois to award a degree to a black graduate. Founded in 1968, Allied Blacks for Liberty and Equality is a multi-ethnic organization that presents a wide variety of events for the Knox campus and Galesburg community. It operates the ABLE Center for Black Culture at 168 W. Tompkins, providing spaces for study and meetings, as well as research facilities in the ABLE Library.
About John Lewis John Lewis was born in 1940, the son of sharecroppers, outside of Troy, Alabama. In college he studied under James Lawson the principles of non-violent protest developed by Ghandi--lessons he applied during numerous civil rights actions and confrontations with authorities over racial segregation and discrimination. Lewis led the "Freedom Rides" of 1961, during which he was beaten and imprisoned, and guided hundreds of black and white student volunteers through the deadly "Mississippi Summer" in which three students were murdered and many more beaten and arrested. In 1963 he spoke alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the famous "March on Washington," and was elected to chairmanship of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He led the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" march at Selma, where he suffered a fractured skull during a tear gas attack by Alabama state troopers. He was forced out of SNCC in 1966 in a dispute with those who felt the organization should take a more militant course. He then served as director of the Voter Education Project, director of ACTION and community affairs director of National Consumer Co-op Bank in Atlanta. His political career began in 1981 with election to the Atlanta City Council. In 1986 he was elected to Congress from the Fifth District in Georgia. He is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Democratic Steering Committee, Congressional Urban Caucus, Congressional Caucus on Anti-Semitism, Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Caucus to Support Writers and Journalists. Congressman Lewis earned a bachelor's degree in religion and philosophy from Fisk University and a divinity degree from the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville.
About the Photo
About ABLE: Allied Blacks for Liberty and Equality was created in 1968, in the ferment that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. A group of approximately twenty Knox students locked themselves in the President's office and submitted a list of demands to the College's administration -- with the formation of an African-American student group as one of their priorities. Although conceived as a resource for black students, ABLE is a multi-ethnic student organization that presents events for the campus and Galesburg community. ABLE's activities include annual celebrations of Black History Month in February and Black Week in April. ABLE had a leadership role in the naming of Hamblin Hall, a student residence, after a distinguished black Knox graduate, Adolph Hamblin. Working with the Office of Career Services, ABLE also has helped develop programs that connect black students with black alumni.
About Knox College: Knox College was chartered by the Illinois legislature on Feb. 15, 1837, and graduated its first class in 1846. Led by the Rev. George Washington Gale, the founders came to Illinois from upstate New York in the 1830's, creating the College as well as the City of Galesburg, which received its municipal charter from the Illinois legislature on Feb. 14, 1857. Knox's founders espoused strong abolitionist and egalitarian beliefs. During the 1850's, the first black U.S. Senator, Hiram Revels, attended Knox's preparatory academy. In 1858, Knox hosted one of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, and the College community favored Abraham Lincoln so thoroughly that a pro-Lincoln banner was hung on the side of Old Main, directly behind the debate platform. In 1860, Knox awarded Lincoln the College's first honorary degree. In 1870 Knox was the first school in Illinois to award a college degree to a black graduate, Barnabas Root. At about the same time, women and men began enrolling in the same courses at Knox. From its founding, the College had supported higher education for women through a separate Female Academy. Students, however, opposed the segregated curriculum and in 1870 a strike by students led to the resignation of President Harvey Curtis, who had tried to maintain separate classes for women and men. Knox currently has 1200 students from 45 states and 37 nations, and is nationally ranked as one of the best values and most diverse campuses among national liberal arts colleges in the U.S.
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