Please join us on Tuesday, March 18, 11:30 a.m. -1:00 p.m. in the rotunda of McWherter Library as U of M students honor women writers, artists, and activists of the 1960s by reading aloud from speeches, letters, poems, fiction, and government documents. The event is free and open to the public.

Highlights include Betty Friedan’s “The Problem That Has No Name,” Shirley Chisholm’s “The 51% Minority,” Joan Baez’s anti-war letter to the IRS,  Nikki Giovanni’s poem “For Saundra,” and Daisy Bates’ speech during the 1963 March on Washington. The program will conclude with a tribute to this year’s MLK Human Rights Award recipient Dr. Miriam DeCosta-Willis and the late activist Mrs. Maxine Smith. Dr. Aram Goudsouzian, chair of the Department of History and author of Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2014), will serve as emcee.

The event is co-sponsored by the University Libraries (with support from the Friends of the University Libraries), the Department of English, the Department of History, and the Center for Research on Women (CROW). Special thank you to Dr. Beverly Bond, Dr. Peggy Caffrey, Dr. Ladrica Menson-Furr, Dr. Sarah Potter, and Dr. Lynda Sagrestano for their scholarly contributions.

“Inspiring Women of the 1960s” was created in celebration of Women’s History Month and inspired by the “The Civil Rights Act of 1964: How Far Have We Come?” exhibition on view on the first and fourth floors of McWherter Library until June 15. For more information, please visit the Libraries’ online research guide.