Fourth annual ‘History Speaks’ event brings Freedom Rider to metro – NewsOK.com

Oklahoma Christian University will bring a civil rights hero to the Oklahoma City community for the fourth year in a row.

Diane Nash, who co-founded the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and led one of the early Freedom Rides to protest segregation, will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the school, 2501 E Memorial Road.

Nash's visit is part of OC's fourth-annual History Speaks program. Past guests have included Carlotta Walls LaNier and Dr. Terrence Roberts of the Little Rock Nine; bus desegregation activist Claudette Colvin; civil rights attorney Fred Gray; and Olympic heroes John Carlos and Tommie Smith.

Nash's involvement in the nonviolent movement began in 1959 while she was a student at Fisk University. In 1960, she chaired the student sit-in movement in Nashville, Tennessee the first southern city to desegregate its lunch counters and helped found SNCC.

In 1961, she coordinated the Freedom Ride from Birmingham, Alabama, to Jackson, Mississippi, a story documented in the recent PBS American Experience film, Freedom Riders. Late civil rights activist Julian Bond once said the decision to march in Selma came from Nash rather than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

We are extremely excited to have Diane Nash coming to our campus, said Gary Jones, OC's multicultural and service learning coordinator. "As someone who worked very closely with Dr. King, John Lewis and several other important civil rights figures, Diane Nash is a historical gem that comes along once in a lifetime.

Nash's History Speaks keynote, part of OC's McGaw Lecture Series, will be in Hardeman Auditorium.

Admission is free, but tickets must be reserved online at http://www.oc.edu/historyspeaks. For more information, call 425-5900 or email gary.jones@oc.edu.

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Fourth annual 'History Speaks' event brings Freedom Rider to metro - NewsOK.com