By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Tech Athletics, in collaboration with the TTU Commission on the Status of the Blacks, Crawford Women's Village, The Treehouse Village, the Tennessee Tech chapter of the NAACP and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, will host a keynote speaker on Monday night in remembrance of MLK Day.
The Reverend Shantell Hinton, Vanderbilt University's assistant university chaplain and assistant director of religious life, will speak at 6 p.m. at Derryberry Hall with the topic being "The Jagged Edge of Activism."
From the release from Tech's MLK Day Co-Chair Andrew Smith: "Human nature and a revisionist view of history compel us to view the Civil Rights era as a time of forward motion and linear progress toward a more just society. Yet, the struggle for civil rights was ensconced in deep tensions, differing strategies, and difficult decisions which ultimately shaped the identity of the movement. The importance of respectability politics, the strategy of non-violence, the structure of leadership, the exclusion/allyship of identities, the inclusion of media - are pieces of the movement's story that did not always fit together perfectly.
"Understanding these jagged edges of activism provides an inroad to evaluating movements more fully for its strengths and weaknesses. The social media age enables accessibility to the frontlines of today's organizing efforts, as well as the private narratives and public critiques of the current movement, in ways that were not possible during the Civil Rights era. This keynote address will delve into the disparate views of the past movement, engage the implications of the movement's identity for contemporary modes of activism, and offer an assessment of innovative activism for today."
Hinton recently graduated with a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School where she was awarded the Kelly Miller Smith Institute for Black Church Studies Certificate, the Luke-Acts Prize, the Liston O. Mills Award, and the Florence Conwell Prize. She also attended Vanderbilt University and received a Bachelor's of Science in Electrical Engineering and Colorado State University for a Master's of Science in Electrical Engineering, with a concentration in Controls and Robotics. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and the National Society of Black Engineers. She has worked as a Process Control Engineer and as a Bible teacher for various organizations. She is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and serves as Worship Coordinator at New Covenant Christian Church in Nashville, Tenn.
For more information about the event, contact the MLK Day co-chairs Tisheika Snow (tsnow@tntech.edu) or Smith (asmith@tntech.edu).
