“Voter Suppression in America” was the topic of keynote speaker Dr. Carol Anderson, historian, educator, and New York Times bestselling author, at the 14th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration on Sunday, Jan. 19, at 3 p.m. held at Westport Country Playhouse. The event was free-of-charge and open to the public.
The celebration was co-sponsored by The Westport Library, Westport Country Playhouse, Westport/Weston Interfaith Council, Westport/Weston Interfaith Clergy, and TEAM Westport.
“On behalf of the co-sponsoring organizations, we are honored to welcome Dr. Carol Anderson to this year’s event,” said Harold Bailey, Jr., chair of TEAM Westport. “She is one of the nation’s foremost experts on voting suppression and voter disinformation. Her body of research and historical perspectives directly intersect with the issues most critical to the future of our nation at this time.”
Dr. Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University. She is the author of “One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy”; “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation's Divide,” a New York Times bestseller; “Eyes Off the Prize: The United Nations and the African American Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1955”; and “Bourgeois Radicals: The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1960.”
This event was made possible in part by and is included in the Westport Library's 2019–20 WestportREADS program, "Our Vote. Our Future," a year-long series commemorating the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
The annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration began in 2006 as an interfaith gathering, coordinated by the Interfaith Council of Westport and Weston.
Photos by David Vita