For Immediate Release
November 21, 2011

Civil Rights Leader Minnijean Brown-Trickey to Teach Class at Cañada This Spring

Trickey, one of the original "Little Rock Nine," will teach Landmarks of Civil Rights.

Minnijean Brown-Trickey, one of a group of African-American teenagers known as the "Little Rock Nine," will teach a course titled "Landmarks of Civil Rights: The U.S. Civil Rights Movement" this spring. The course will be offered Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30 beginning Jan. 19. It is being offered in cooperation with Sojourn to the Past. The class is open to everyone, including local high school students. The limit is 60 students.

On Sept. 25, 1957, under the gaze of 1,200 armed soldiers and a worldwide audience, Minnijean and eight other African-American teenagers faced down an angry mob and helped to desegregate Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. This seminal event in American history was just the beginning of her long career as a crusader for civil rights. She has spent her life fighting for the rights of minority groups and the dispossessed. For her work, she has received the U.S. Congressional Medal, the Wolf Award, the Spingarn Medal, and many other citations and awards.

"We are honored to have Minnijean Brown-Trickey teaching a course on the U.S. civil rights movement on campus this spring," said David Johnson, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Brown-Trickey will teach with Jeff Steinberg, founder of Sojourn to the Past. Students will have an opportunity to travel on a 10-day trip through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee to visit some of the key sites in the civil rights movement and hear from the movement's leaders. The trip is led by Steinberg.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our students," Johnson said. "The opportunity to meet and learn from the people who changed U.S. history is incredible."

 

For more information, contact Robert Hood, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, at hoodr@smccd.edu or 306-3340