Programs

Race Women, Race Man: Juanita Jackson Mitchell, Gloria Richardson and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is known today for his steadfast convictions and his pursuit of racial equality. His nearly decade-long fight in the modern Civil Rights Movement helped to define his legacy as a political activist and non-violent protester. However, prior to and during Dr. King's awe-inspiring marches, powerful speeches and seemingly endless patience in the fight for civil rights, two Maryland women--Juanita Jackson Mitchell and Gloria Richardson--waged their own politically activist battles for not only racial, but gender equality as well. Sharon Harley focuses on the political work and lives of Dr. King and these two--Race Women--during the mid- to late-twentieth century and examines local activism as a precursor and post-script to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Rights Movement. Adult audiences

Sharon Harley is Associate Professor of the African-American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park. She is co-editor of the widely read Afro-American Woman: Struggles and Images and of Women in Africa and the African Disapora as well as numerous other scholarly articles. She is the recipient of the 2003 Woodrow Wilson Center fellowship and is currently the principal investigator of the Ford Foundation-funded The Meanings and Representations of Work in the Lives of Women of Color. Dr. Harley received her Ph.D. in United States History from Howard University.