Social Work Lecture Series

Sponsored by: School of Social Work
Contact: Obie Clayton, Jr. Donald L. Hollowell Distinguished Professorship of Social Justice and Civil Rights Studies 706-542-7662

The School of Social Work is hosting a series of civil rights lectures this spring that will bring leaders and historians of the civil rights movement to UGA’s campus. The lectures are part of the course, “The Civil Rights Movement and the Practice of Social Work” taught by the inaugural Donald L. Hollowell Professor of Social Justice and Civil Rights Studies, Obie Clayton, Jr.

All lectures begin at 1:30 p.m. in the M. Smith Griffith Auditorium at the Georgia Museum of Art. All lectures are Blue Card events.

Lonnie C. King, Jr. is a founding member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and one of the authors of “An Appeal for Human Rights,” published March 9, 1960 in various Atlanta area newspapers, which kicked off the Atlanta Student Movement. Days after the appeal was published, King, along with friend Julian Bond and others, helped organize nonviolent sit-ins and boycotts around the city. King was the plaintiff in the law suit that desegregated all court houses, public parks, swimming pools and recreational centers in Atlanta. He has received countless recognitions and honors for his role in the civil rights movement.

King is the former president of the Atlanta chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was responsible for recruiting Alonzo Crim, Ph.D. to serve as the first African American superintendent in the South. He is passionate about education and has held teaching positions from the elementary to the collegiate level. King opened the Peachtree Hope Charter School in the city of Atlanta in 2010. He plans to organize several more charter schools throughout the state in the neighborhoods where students are not achieving.

King graduated from Morehouse College in 1969 and earned a masters degree in public administration from the University of Baltimore. He still lives in Atlanta and continues his involvement in the civil rights movement through his work commemorating the movement and working with disadvantaged Atlanta youth. He is currently teaching history at Georgia State University and completing his Ph.D., also in history.
School of Social Work Civil Rights Lecture Series