Rev. Dorsey Odell Blake, one of the first black men to serve as a UA faculty member and the first chairman of the department of African-American studies, will be the guest speaker for the 2008 Rose Gladney Lecture for Justice and Social Change.
He will give a lecture tonight at 7:30 p.m., titled "40 Years after Dr. King: Wilderness or Promised Land?"
"He is the ideal person to give a lecture," said Lynne Adrian, chairwoman of the American studies department.
The lecture will be held at the W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library on the second floor of Mary Harmon Bryant Hall.
A reception will follow the lecture in which attendees will have the privilege of speaking with Blake and Rose Gladney, for whom the lecture is named.
Blake was chosen to be this year's lecturer at the request of Gladney. They had been faculty members at concurrent times, and had recently met again at the Opening Doors Conference that celebrated desegregation, Adrian said.
He is the presiding minister of The Church for The Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco, Calif. The church was founded in 1994, and is the nation's first interracial, interfaith congregation.
Blake has extensive field ministry experience with interfaith groups addressing justice and peace issues. He is a member of the steering committee of Religious Witness with Homeless People and has been in the forefront of peace and justice activities, speaking to small audiences and rallies that have drawn over 200,000 people, according to a press release.
He is also the recipient of numerous community service awards and grants from the Fund for Theological Education and the Danforth Foundation.
"The Rose Gladney Lecture for Justice and Social Change stands to remind us that the struggles for justice and social change are a continuous struggle," Adrian said, "These issues reach from our past into our future."
Adrian said she hopes students who attend the lecture will become better educated about the University's past and they will connect the past to the realizations of what the University has become.
The lecture was named for Rose Gladney, who worked during her career on behalf of both her students and social justice. She helped to construct the master's program in women's studies at the Capstone and was instrumental in the growth of the American studies program.
"She made sure ordinary voices were recorded," said Adrian.
The event is co-sponsored by University Libraries, New College, the African-American studies program and the departments of American studies, religious studies and women's studies, the College of Arts and Sciences and the diversity committee of the College of Arts and Sciences.
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