In 2018, the Hancock Performing Arts Center received a grant for a series of lectures entitled, “The Struggle and the Music It Created.” The purpose of the project was to address race in Mississippi and to discuss the relevance of the music that defined the movement. The majority of the audience attending was students. After the lectures ended, Kevin Allemand, a history teacher, noticed a shift in conversations where his students were engaged in the civil rights movement and asking questions and making comments. He realized that placing the students in the historical context as they listened to the lectures was transformative. For the 2019 Spring semester, “The Struggle” conversations will continue by addressing equity in education in a series of three lectures and a poetry reading.
FEBRUARY 12: Dr. Sherita L. Johnson from the University of Southern Mississippi will give a lecture and discuss the story of Clyde Kennard’s admission to the university and how his story united the campus to secure his legacy.
