UTM hosts 25th annual Civil Rights Conference

MARTIN, Tenn. — Earlier Monday evening, residents gathered at the University of Tennessee at Martin for the 25th annual Civil Rights Conference.

Week one kicked off with a number of educational events including special guest speaker Charlayne Hunter-Gaul, an award-winning journalist and a national foreign correspondent.

She was also the first African-American student to attend the University of Georgia in 1961.

“We do this for our students, we do this for the community and so we try to select people who have a message to bring. Tonight we kicked it off with the people who started this,” said Dr. Henri Giles, assistant professor of African-American studies at UTM.

The theme of this year’s civil rights conference is “Strength, courage and wisdom: Lessons for the journey toward justice.”

For more local news, click here.