{"id":989,"date":"2016-02-22T16:59:52","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T21:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/22\/diane-nash-to-speak-on-freedom-riders\/"},"modified":"2022-11-06T21:00:46","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T02:00:46","slug":"diane-nash-to-speak-on-freedom-riders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/diane-nash-to-speak-on-freedom-riders\/","title":{"rendered":"Diane Nash to speak on Freedom Riders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Diane Nash<\/p><\/div>\n

GREENVILLE, S.C.\u2014Diane Nash, a Civil Rights champion who helped organize the Freedom Riders as a college student in the 1960s, will speak Tuesday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. in Younts Conference Center on the Furman University campus. A reception and book signing will follow at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

Her talk, \u201cFreedom Riders: A Journey for Justice,\u201d is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by Furman\u2019s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and Department of Community Relations. Nash\u2019s talk is part of Furman\u2019s slate of events celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr., \u201cBuilding the Beloved Community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Freedom Riders were a group of men and women, both black and white, who rode buses and trains through the deep South in 1961 to test the previous year\u2019s Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation in interstate public facilities.<\/p>\n

As a student at Fisk University in 1959, Nash embraced nonviolence in response to racial segregation, participating in sit-ins affiliated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) under the direction of Martin Luther King, Jr. She also coordinated the Freedom Ride from Birmingham, Ala.to Jackson, Miss., and was arrested and jailed in Rock Hill, S.C.<\/p>\n

Nash is the recipient of numerous awards, including the War Resisters\u2019 League Peace Award; the Distinguished American Award presented by the John F. Kennedy Library; the LBJ Award for Leadership in Civil Rights from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum; and an honorary doctorate of human letters from Fisk University, her alma mater. Most recently, Nash delivered the 2009 Slavery Remembrance Day Memorial Lecture in Liverpool, England.<\/p>\n

Her work has been cited in numerous books, documentaries, magazines, and newspaper articles, and she has appeared on such TV shows and films as\u00a0\u201cThe Oprah Winfrey Show,\u201d\u00a0Spike Lee<\/a>‘s\u00a0\u201c4 Little Girls,\u201d and PBS\u2019s\u00a0\u201cEyes on the Prize: America\u2019s Civil Rights Years 1954-1965.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Furman events commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr. are scheduled, and are free and open to the public:<\/p>\n