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Civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Jr. to speak at the School Feb. 3

Please join us for the 2nd annual Bobby Boyd Leadership Lecture, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015, 5:30 p.m., at the UNC School of Social Work. This event is free and open to the public.

Lifelong activist Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. will share his evolving perspectives on the value and urgent need for “freedom-fighting” social workers who can help lead toward a more positive and inclusive social transformation of our nation and world into a better place to live for all people.

The lecture will be in the auditorium of the Tate-Turner-Kuralt building (School of Social Work) at 325 Pittsboro St. on the UNC campus. Parking will be available in the deck of the FedEx Global Education building on the corner of Pittsboro and McCauley Streets.

About the Speaker

Dr. Benjamin Franklin Chavis, Jr. is an African American civil rights leader born on Jan. 22, 1948 in Oxford, N.C. As a 12-year-old, Chavis effectively desegregated his hometown’s whites-only public library, becoming the first African American to be issued a library card in the town’s history. Later in his youth, Chavis became the youth coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the age of 24, he rose to international prominence as the leader of the “Wilmington Ten.” After the conviction of the entire group that would be overturned on appeal, Chavis received a sentence of 34 years in prison. Along with the other members of the Wilmington Ten, he walked to his freedom in 1980 after the Federal Appeals Court overturned the convictions and cited prosecutorial misconduct. Upon his release from prison, Chavis returned to the field of civil rights, and became a vice president of the National Council of Churches. The NAACP National Board of Directors elected him as the executive director of America’s oldest civil rights organization.

He later served as the national director of the Million Man March, and the founder and CEO of the National African American Leadership Summit (NAALS). Since 2001, Chavis has been CEO and co-chair of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, in New York City, which he co-founded with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. In 2014, Chavis became the president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, an organization which focuses on supporting and advocating for publishers of the nation’s more than 200 black newspapers.

Chavis received a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; M.Div., magna cum laude, from Duke University; and D. Min., from Howard University.

About the Bobby Boyd Leadership Lecture

UNC School of Social Work alumnus and Board of Advisors member Bobby Boyd, MSW ’69, received a Distinguished Alumni Award in May 2009. He retired in Oct. 2008 from a 30-year career as director of Catawba County Social Services.

The lecture series is made possible by the Bobby Boyd Leadership Fund at the School of Social Work, which was established by Boyd’s former staff at the Catawba County Department of Social Services, the Social Services Board and Catawba County Commissioners.

With the purpose of sustaining Boyd’s vision of focusing on results and excellence in public service, the fund supports leadership development and opportunities for UNC School of Social Work students. The Bobby Boyd Lecture Series provides a forum for leaders from various fields of practice to discuss their experiences and their use of specific strategies to provide leadership aimed to promote social change interventions.