Campus News

Martin School's Voting Rights Symposium at UK Tuesday

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 12, 2015) — Fifty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The landmark federal legislation, enacted at the height of the civil rights movement, prohibited racial discrimination in voting. 

The University of Kentucky's Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, with the support of a number of co-sponsors, is hosting an important symposium tomorrow afternoon and evening, Tuesday, Oct. 13, in the Recital Hall of the Singletary Center for the Arts. Titled "The Foundation of a Democracy: Voting Rights, Past, Present and Future," the program features a number of nationally known  figures from the media, politics, the judiciary and more. Admission is free to the entire symposium and all are welcome to attend.  

Jon Meacham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “American Lion and “Franklin and Winston," will present the first Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Lecture, honoring the late U.S. senator and Kentucky governor, during the evening session, which will go from 7 to 9 p.m. Ford, a longtime advocate for the Martin School, was the principal sponsor of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, sometimes called the “motor voter act.”

The conference kicks off at 1 p.m. Tuesday with a keynote address by Dorothy Butler Gilliam, who in 1961 became the first female African-American reporter and later columnist hired by The Washington Post. The much-honored journalist covered numerous developments during the civil rights movement. Gilliam, who grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, will provide a historical perspective on voting rights.  

"This promises to be a compelling and fascinating day on our campus," said Merl Hackbart, interim director of the Martin School and a longtime professor at UK. "The theme of voting rights in the U.S. is in the news almost every day. The discussion and examination of this subject is very timely, especially with 2016 being a presidential election year."

The first part of the afternoon session also features former Lexington Mayor Pam Miller, Lexington Herald-Leader publisher and president Rufus Friday, and national political correspondent Ari Berman, author of the recently published and much acclaimed book, "Give Us The Ballot."

Former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson will then moderate a discussion of voting rights issues in the states featuring David Becker, director of election initiatives with The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Pedro A. Cortés, secretary of state for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

U.S. District Judge (retired) Jennifer Coffman will lead a discussion of recent court decisions with Judge Robert Hunter, North Carolina Court of Appeals; North Carolina voting rights attorney Daniel Donovan; and Josh Douglas, the Robert G. Lawson and William H. Fortune Associate Professor, University of Kentucky College of Law.

The afternoon program will run from 1 to 5 p.m. in the Recital Hall.

UK President Eli Capilouto will give welcoming remarks at the evening session, which begins at 7 p.m. Meacham will deliver the Ford Lecture, then join in a roundtable discussion with Gilliam, Kentucky Lt. Gov.Crit Luallen, and Brad Cowgill, chair of the Martin School Board of Visitors.

Kentucky Educational Television (KET) will televise the entire symposium live on KET KY and KET.org/live. And, KET will air highlights from the Martin School conference on voting rights on both KET2 and KET KY a total of five times between Oct. 18-23.

In addition to the Martin School and KET, other co-sponsors for the Oct. 13 voting rights symposium include UK, the UK College of Law, the UK Department of Political Science, the Council of State Governments, the Kentucky League of Women Voters, the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, United Way of the Bluegrass, and other individual symposium supporters.

Special efforts have been made to accommodate additional parking near the Singletary Center for the symposium, which is free and open to the public.

 

MEDIA CONTACT: Carl Nathe, 859-257-3200; carl.nathe@uky.edu.