Ella Baker Day Celebrated April 13 at Manhattanville College

Purchase, NY, April 8, 2016 -- Manhattanville College will host Ella Baker Day on Wednesday, April 13 to honor the legacy of the unsung Civil Rights Movement activist. The noted author and political activist, Kevin Powell, is the keynote speaker. The talk, free and open to the public, will be held at Reid Castle at Manhattanville College and starts at 6:30 p.m.

Keynote speaker Kevin Powell is a political activist, poet, writer, entrepreneur, and president and co-founder of BK Nation, a multicultural organization focused on critical issues such as education, civic engagement, and health and wellness. Powell also recognizes the importance of the arts as he produced the first exhibit on the history of hip-hop in America at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has a forthcoming book on the biography of rapper Tupac Shakur. He is the author of 11 books and after the talk he will be signing his most recent book, The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy’s Journey into Manhood.

As part of Ella Baker Day, students will also be presenting poster presentations, from 12-2 p.m. in the cafeteria, on critical voting issues including voter suppression; redistricting; race, gender and the vote; restoring voter rights; participatory democracy; and campaign finance.

Ella Baker dedicated her life to activism and is known for her belief in the potential and dignity of every individual. She mentored and worked closely with nearly every major civil rights organization including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; she also personally mentored major civil rights era activists such as Julian Bond, Diane Nash, Bob Moses and Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael). Ture once said, "The most powerful person in the struggle of the '60s was Miss Ella Baker, not Martin Luther King."

Ella Baker Day is part of a wider campaign to create a holiday in honor of Ella Baker in New York (see the petition at bit.ly/EBD-NY). Hephzibah Strmic-Pawl, founder of the campaign to create an Ella Baker Day and Assistant Professor of Sociology at Manhattanville, says such a day “will highlight the ongoing value of community organizing and the pivotal roles that women and people of color have played in creating a more just society.”

Ella Baker Day is hosted by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of Manhattanville College; the campus is located at 2900 Purchase Street in Purchase, NY. A RSVP in encouraged but not required: bit.ly/EBD-2016. For additional information about the lecture contact Hephzibah Strmic-Pawl at hvsp@mville.edu or 914.323.5184

About Manhattanville College:
Manhattanville College (www.manhattanville.edu) is an independent, co-educational liberal arts institution dedicated to academic excellence and social and civic action. Manhattanville prepares students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community. Located just 30 minutes from New York City, Manhattanville serves 1,700 undergraduate students and 1,000 graduate students from more than 50 countries and 30 states. Founded in 1841, the College offers more than 50 undergraduate areas of study in the arts and sciences, and offers graduate programs in Education, Business, Creative Writing, as well as Continuing and Executive Education programs.

Photo: Kevin Powell

Media Contact:
Axel Bang
abang@axelbang.com
914.234.5433