Elbert Ransom to speak about Martin Luther King and Civil Rights Movement April 22

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - On Tuesday, April 22, at 4:30 p.m., Elbert Ransom Jr. will deliver a lecture titled “A Time of Remembrance: Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights Movement and the Community of Faith.” The talk, free and open to the public, will take place in Room 103 of Hillcrest Environmental Center, located on College Street (Route 125).

An ordained Baptist minister, Ransom is president of REACH, Inc., an international human relations firm established in 2000 to facilitate understanding between races and cultures across American communities. He earned his master of divinity degree from Howard University School of Divinity and his doctor of ministry degree from Wesley Theological Seminary. 

Ransom participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott; was a principal organizer of the Chicago Freedom Movement, which was a campaign led by King to strike against housing discrimination; and later played an important role in the Poor People’s Campaign, King’s last major initiative. 

In recent years, Ransom has traveled across the globe lecturing on nonviolence as a force for social change. In 2004, his autobiography, “I Shall Not Pass This Way Again,” was published. 

Ransom’s visit to Middlebury coincides with the 40th anniversary of King’s assassination and the passage of the 1968 Civil Rights Act.

For more information, contact Middlebury College Professor of History Jim Ralph at ralph@middlebury.edu or 802-443-5320.