King Center Brings Anti-racism Activists to Campus

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 19, 2018) ― Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Network, and Tim Wise, a prominent anti-racism activist, author and trainer, will visit the University of Kentucky campus April 26 as part of the Martin Luther King Center's Convo Series.  

The #BlackLivesMatter movement was born in the summer of 2013, sparked by the acquittal of neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman in the murder trial of unarmed 17-year-old African-American high school student Trayvon Martin, who was visiting relatives in the gated community of Sanford, Florida. 

Political activists Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi created an online platform for social activists around the nation. The movement eventually went global as networks were created in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.  

Wise has specialized in training teachers, law enforcement officers, college campuses, and employees of corporations, businesses and nonprofit organizations to dismantle racism in their institutions. A native of Nashville, Tennessee, Wise was a leader of a very active anti-apartheid movement at Tulane University.

After graduating from Tulane, Wise continued his anti-racism work in the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, affecting the campaigns of several politicians in Tennessee, Louisiana and other parts of the South, while growing a national reputation as a defendant of affirmative action. Radio and television producers began inviting him to address affirmative action, racism and white privilege in America.

Cullors and Wise will speak at 5:30 p.m., April 26, at Memorial Hall. The event is free and open to the public. This segment of the King Center's Convo Series is co-sponsored by the Center for Graduate and Professional Diversity Initiatives.