FERRUM, VA, February 10, 2025 – On Wednesday, February 12, Ferrum College will present “How College Students Changed the Civil Rights Movement” for this week’s Inquiring Minds program.
The Inquiring Minds series offers lively, informal presentations and activities on various interesting topics for the entire community. Stanley Library at Ferrum College presents the series, which takes place in the LEaP Studio during the campus’s Community Hour from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Dr. Brian Suttell, assistant professor of history and director of the Richard L. Smith Center for International Studies, will discuss the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Suttell is the author of Campus to Counter: Civil Rights Activism in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina, 1960-1963, published in 2023. He will discuss college students’ crucial and often underappreciated role in the Civil Rights Movement. The presentation will describe some incredible stories of civil rights leaders Dr. Suttell interviewed for his book. Examples of these accounts include participating in sit-ins, being chased by the Ku Klux Klan, meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., and more. Students, faculty, staff, and visitors are welcome to ask questions and offer their perspectives on one of the most significant movements in American history.
This Inquiring Minds event is sponsored by the Boone Honors Program and connected to an Honors class on The Sixties, taught by Dr. Katherine Grimes this semester. The course was developed by Faculty Emerita Karen Duddy, who also founded the Inquiring Minds series.
