NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

2/17/2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES ­The School of Social Sciences at Northwestern State University will host a three-day conference: "The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and The Voting Rights Act of 1965" in Natchitoches Feb. 24-26. The conference is part of the American Democracy Project at NSU.

Events will take place at the Ora G. Williams Television Studio in Kyser Hall on the Northwestern campus, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Natchitoches and at the Ramada Inn in Natchitoches.

Authors, scholars, government officials and citizens involved in the Civil Rights movement will participate.

"This conference will help commemorate the passage of the two landmark laws and the sacrifice of those who helped secure passage," said conference organizer Dr. Alex Aichinger, the Clyde M. Bostick Professor of Social Sciences at NSU. "It will also educate students on the history of the era. Unfortunately, many of them have no knowledge of the struggle and what it involved. I also hope it will encourage them to be engaged and politically active in their community."

The conference will begin Thursday at 8:15 a.m. in the Williams Studio with a presentation by Al Shapiro, president of the board of the directors of the Louisiana ACLU on "The ACLU and the Middle Class." Michael Martin of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette will discuss "Opposition to the Second Reconstruction."

Author Kay Mills will make a presentation "Changing Channels: Television and Civil Rights" and will later sign copies of her book "Changing Channels: The Civil Rights Case that Transformed Television." Roy Davis of NSU's Department of Journalism will discuss "Mississippi Television, the Troubled Years."

Afternoon sessions at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center begin at 1:30 p.m. with a panel discussion on "Disability and Electoral Access" featuring Katherine Hoover, a disability affairs specialist with Jefferson Parish; Page McCranie, ADA administrator for the City of New Orleans, and Lois Simpson, executive director of The Advocacy Center.

A panel discussion, "Desegregation in Louisiana Higher Education," will be led by Sherry T. Broussard and Deborah Morehead of UL-Lafayette. Thomas Durant of Louisiana State University will conclude opening day presentations with "The Gender Divide Among African Americans in Louisiana Higher Education."

On Friday, morning sessions will be held in the Williams Studio. Mfanya Tryman of Mississippi State University will begin the day's presentations at 8:30 a.m. with "Title VII and the Granz and Grutter Decisions." "Racial Redistricting: The Ecology Fallacy" will be discussed by Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court Jon Gegenheimer and John Wildgren of the University of New Orleans. Morning presentations conclude with Jason Pigg of Louisiana Tech discussing "Democratic and Republican Positions on Civil Rights: Party Elite and Partisan Differences," and Phoenix Savage discussing "Civil Rights as Evolution: Rights and Felons."

Friday afternoon sessions at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center begin at 2 p.m. with a talk by NSU faculty member William Housel on "The Persistence of Vision: Race in the 21st Century." Randy Stelly, editor of The Real Views in Natchitoches, will lead a panel discussion on "African-American Politics: Confrontation or Cooperation."

An awards dinner will be held Friday at 7 p.m. at the Ramada Inn. The featured speaker is Weldon Rougeau, former president of the National Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Rougeau, a Louisiana native, was active in the civil rights movement as a college student. His activities led to his arrest and jail in Baton Rouge and expulsion from Southern University. Rougeau went on to graduate from Loyola University, Chicago, and from Harvard Law School. He served as a legislative aid to U.S. Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, chief of staff for Congressman William Jefferson and was an official in the U.S. Department of Labor in the Carter Administration.

Rougeau has also been a vice president with American Express and the Loyola University Health System.

The conference concludes Saturday at 8:30 a.m. with a series of oral history sessions. Terrel Delphin of Natchitoches is organizing a session on of "Leaders in Natchitoches." Natchitoches City Councilwoman Sylvia Morrow is planning a session with some of the students who integrated Northwestern in the 1960s.

For more information on the conference, go to http://www.nsula.edu/adp or contact Aichinger at (318) 357-5490 or aichinger@nsula.edu.

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