OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 The impact of U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy\u2019s historic 1967 trip to investigate hunger and poverty conditions in the Mississippi Delta will be the subject of a panel discussion Tuesday (Feb. 21) at the University of Mississippi.<\/p>\n
Hosted by the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics, the program is set for 1 p.m. in the Overby Center Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n
A special guest will be Marian Wright Edelman, who led Kennedy on his tour through Greenville, Cleveland, Mound Bayou and Clarksdale. She was a civil rights lawyer in Mississippi at the time and went on to become president of the Children\u2019s Defense Fund in Washington.<\/p>\n
She will be joined by two community activists who had prominent roles in the Delta in the wake of Kennedy\u2019s visit: Owen Brooks, who served as a leader of the Delta Ministry, and James Figgs, a public official in Marks.<\/p>\n
Also on the panel will be two journalists, George Lapides, who covered the trip for the Press-Scimitar of Memphis, and Nick Kotz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer whose book, \u201cLet Them Eat Promises,\u201d grew out of the issues of hunger that Kennedy explored.<\/p>\n
Ellen Meacham, an Ole Miss journalism instructor who has been researching the Kennedy trip for a book project, will serve as moderator.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a particularly rich topic for the Overby Center to explore,” Meacham said. “Through the words and lenses of journalists, the nation encountered those hungry children right along with him and that had a significant impact on efforts at reform. However, this event is not all about the past. It is still relevant today, with 42 percent of the children in the Mississippi Delta still living in poverty.”<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had been planning to have a program on the 45th anniversary of Kennedy\u2019s memorable journey, and when we learned that Mrs. Edelman would be on campus, we arranged the time to take advantage of her presence,\u201d said Overby Fellow Curtis Wilkie.<\/p>\n
One of the leading national advocates for children\u2019s causes, Edelman will speak Tuesday evening at a Black History Month event sponsored by the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. That program is set for 7 p.m. at the Ford Center for Performing Arts.<\/p>\n
Kennedy came to Mississippi in the spring of 1967 \u2013 a year after a dramatic appearance as a speaker at Ole Miss \u2013 as a member of a special Senate committee studying hunger. Following hearings in Jackson, Kennedy and a colleague, U.S. Sen. Joseph Clark of Pennsylvania, branched off to look at conditions firsthand in the Delta.<\/p>\n
Chroniclers of his career say that Kennedy\u2019s experience among hungry and destitute families there helped to crystallize his social conscience in the year remaining in his life, when he became passionate voice for the poor and underprivileged. He was a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination when he was assassinated in June 1968.<\/p>\n
For more information or for assistance related to a disability, call 662-915-1692. For more information, visit the Overby Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"