Civil Rights Activist DeRay Mckesson to speak at West Virginia State University Black History Month Convocation Feb. 25

2/10/2020

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Contact: Jack Bailey
(304) 766-4109
Jbaile19@wvstateu.edu
 
     
INSTITUTE, W.Va. --  West Virginia State University (WVSU) will host its annual Black History Month Convocation Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 12:30 p.m. in the P.A. Williams Auditorium in Ferrell Hall featuring American civil rights activist and Black Lives Matter podcaster DeRay Mckesson.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Mckesson is an educator and author of the critically-acclaimed memoir, “On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope.” He is the co-founder of Campaign Zero and host of the award-winning weekly podcast “Pod Save the People.” He is a former sixth grade math teacher and Chief of Human Capital of Baltimore City Public Schools, the youngest chief in the history of Baltimore City Public Schools.

In 2015, Mckesson was named one of Fortune magazine’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders and one of the 100 Global Thinkers List by Foreign Policy Magazine. He was also awarded the Peter Jennings Award for Civic Leadership and the Howard Zinn Freedom to Write Award. In 2016, he was named one of the 30 Most Influential People on The Internet by Time Magazine.

Mckesson has spoken at colleges, universities, forums, and conferences around the United States and the world and frequently appears on national media outlets including The Daily Show, NPR, MSNBC and CNN.
The convocation is one of several events taking place on the WVSU campus during the month of February in celebration of Black History Month. A complete calendar of Black History Month events can be found at www.wvstateu.edu/blackhistorymonth.

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West Virginia State University is a public, land grant, historically black university, which has evolved into a fully accessible, racially integrated, and multi-generational institution, located in Institute, W.Va. As a “living laboratory of human relations,” the university is a community of students, staff, and faculty committed to academic growth, service, and preservation of the racial and cultural diversity of the institution. Its mission is to meet the higher education and economic development needs of the state and region through innovative teaching and applied research.