Claflin University Kicks Off “Created Equal” Grant Celebration with Freedom Rider
Feb 20, 2014
By LaChrista Williams
Communications and Marketing Intern
Claflin University alumna Glenda Gaither Davis, Class of 1963, will speak as part of the “Created Equal: An American Civil Rights Struggle” kick-off celebration at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, in the Grace Thomas Kennedy Auditorium on campus.
Davis was part of the first group of eight Freedom Riders from New Orleans, Louisiana, bound for Jackson, Mississippi, to conduct tests at a railway terminal. She shared her memories in the documentary Freedom Riders, one of four films on civil rights history that Claflin received as part of the “Created Equal” grant.
Davis, author of Love, Fear and Everything Between, will talk about her experience as a Freedom Rider before the film is shown. She will also be reading some of her poetry and signing copies of her book. The event is free and open to the public.
Through “Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle,” Claflin was selected to join some 500 communities nationwide to receive the National Endowment for the Humanities-funded films, accompanied by programming resources to guide public conversations about the changing meanings of freedom and equality in U.S. history. The program launched in 2013 to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, and will continue through 2016.
The “Created Equal” initiative was developed through a partnership of the NEH and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Other films included in the grant are The Abolitionists, Slavery by Another Name and The Loving Story.
For more information, visit http://createdequal.neh.gov/.
LaChrista Williams is a junior Mass Communications major and Business Administration minor. She is an intern with Claflin University’s Office of Communications and Marketing for spring 2014.