Topeka, Kans. – Civil and voting rights activist Flonzie Brown Wright will visit Washburn University Monday, Feb. 10. Brown Wright was on the front lines of the civil rights movement in Mississippi in the 1960’s and 1970’s, working alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ambassador Andrew Young, Marian Wright Edelman, Constance Slaughter Harvey, Alice Walker, and Judge Reuben Anderson. During her time on campus, Brown Wright will speak to students about the history of American citizenship, join a panel to discuss this topic for KTWU’s “I’ve Got Issues,” and will deliver a public lecture.
The public lecture is at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10 in the Bradbury Thompson Alumni Center on the Washburn University campus. Students, faculty, staff, and the community are invited to attend the lecture and it is free; a book signing will follow.
“Mrs. Brown Wright builds on her life experience to share a much needed message of wisdom and hope,” said Dr. Bruce Mactavish, assistant professor of history at Washburn University. “She has spoken with Washburn students during trips to explore civil rights history in the southeast, helping provide a personal connection to the struggles many faced to gain equality. It is an honor and quite exciting to have the opportunity for our entire campus to spend time with her.”
Brown Wright’s planned presentations are part of Washburn University’s WUmester. WUmester 2020 is a series of coordinated events that examine the concepts of citizenship and suffrage across the world and throughout history in order to foster civic engagement, as well as awareness of and empathy for disenfranchised and oppressed populations. Brown Wright’s visit is made possible by the generous support of the Washburn University Mulvane Art Museum. The Mulvane Art Museum is also hosting the I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America exhibit which is the foundation for WUmester 2020 programming. It includes a collection of 74 black and white photographs by Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer Brian Lanker accompanied by biographical information taken from interviews conducted by Lanker when the photos were taken. The text and photographs together provide insight into the centrality of black women to social organizing in the United States and efforts to realize the promise of the fourteenth, fifteen, and nineteenth amendments that promised citizenship and voting rights to African Americans and women.
“Flonzie Brown Wright’s visit and lecture is illustrative of the types of conversations we want to have on campus concerning citizenship and suffrage, our WUmester 2020 theme,” said Dr. Kelly Erby, assistant dean of the Washburn University College of Arts and Sciences, associate professor of history and chair of the WUmester committee. “Her work to secure voting rights and basic equality for African Americans is illustrative of the central role women of color have always played in the continuing struggle to achieve equality for all Americans and secure the promises of the 15th and 19th amendments.”
Flonzie Brown Wright
After the assassination of civil rights leader, Medgar Evers, on June 12, 1963, his brother, Charles Evers, appointed Brown Wright as the Canton, Miss. NAACP branch manager. Brown Wright registered thousands of African Americans to vote and testified before a congressional subcommittee on enforcing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After James Meredith was shot during the “March Against Fear” in 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. called on Brown Wright to arrange accommodations for 3,000 marchers in Canton. In 1968, Brown Wright became the first African American woman to hold a position as election commissioner in Mississippi. In this role, Brown Wright monitored elections, trained poll workers, supervised registrars, and sued the Elections Board for discriminating against black candidates and poll workers.
Brown Wright received a Fain Fellowship and attended Tougaloo College, where her concentration was political science, pre-law, and black history. She graduated from the Institute of Politics at Millsaps College in Jackson and served the college as vice president of the institute where she taught, "Grass-roots Organizing and Campaign Management." She is the recipient of two honorary degrees, Doctor of Humane Letters from LaMoyne College in Syracuse, New York and most recently from Tougaloo College in 2018. She is the recipient of more than 400 national, state, church, and community service awards including the National FBI Citizens Award presented by former FBI Director James Comey in 2017 in Washington D.C.
WUmester
Washburn University introduces a new, diversity-related topic to engage the Washburn community in a conversation and collective learning experience on timely subjects every spring semester. Known as WUmester, the topic is explored through curriculum and special events.
The 2020 citizenship and suffrage theme is inspired by the election year in the United States. This year also marks the 150th anniversary of the 15th amendment, which gave African American men the right to vote, as well as the centennial anniversary of the 19th amendment that extended voting rights to white women. Further, it is a census year when the U.S. Constitution requires every resident of the nation to be counted for the purposes of allocating representation in U.S. House of Representatives and billions of dollars in federal funds to local communities. WUmester 2020 will examine who belongs to this and other nations, who has historically belonged, and what belonging—and not belonging—means.
Overview of Additional WUmester 2020 Events
These events are open to the public and are free to attend, unless otherwise noted. We will send out more information and reminders closer to each event. You can find a complete list of events here: https://www.washburn.edu/academics/WUmester/WU-mester-events.html
February 14 – June 13
Mulvane Art Museum
I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed the World
February 14
7 p.m., White Concert Hall
“It’s a Greek Thing” Step Show
$5 for general public admissions
February 27
7 p.m., Neese Gray Theater
Lincoln-Harman Lecture featuring Dr. Koritha Mitchell’s lecture “Homemade Citizenship: All but Inviting Injury”
March 16 – 20
March 16 – 18 in the Memorial Union; March 19 – 20 in the Mabee Library
“Learning from the Past, Reimagining the Future,” League of Women Voters Exhibit
March 27
The Right to Vote: A Conference at the Centennial of the 19th Amendment
See http://suffrage.wuhistory.com
April 2 -4
WIFI Film Festival, featuring films, artist talk, panels and workshops by and about trailblazing women. See: https://washburn.edu/wifi/
April 17
Apeiron, annual showcase of Washburn students’ original research, scholarship, creative activities and community engagement activities
June 19 – 27
Sunflower Music Festival – “The Year of the Woman,” featuring the debut of an original composition by Libby Larsen for a work for chamber orchestra with narration, focusing on the evolution of women’s voting rights. See https://www.sunflowermusicfestival.org
-30-
