Ecumenical Loyalties: Reading the Luminaries of the Black Freedom Movement at Saint Peter’s College
In recognition of Black History Month and in celebration of the Saint Peter’s University Sesquicentennial year, on February 28, 2022, Dr. John W. Johnson, Associate Professor of History, presented Ecumenical Loyalties: Reading the Luminaries of the Black Freedom Movement at Saint Peter’s College. This multimedia presentation explored the works of important Civil Rights activists who visited Saint Peter’s, including Bayard Rustin in 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. H ’65, Dick Gregory in 1969, Jesse Jackson in 1972, Amiri Baraka in 1972, Shirley Chisholm in 1973, Mary Lou Williams in 1974 and Coretta Scott King in 1975.
Research for this event was curated from the collections in the Hon. Frank J. Guarini Center for Community Memory by SPU students, under the direction of Dr. Johnson and made possible with sponsorship from Humanities Research for the Public from The Council of Independent Colleges and The Hudson County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs/Tourism Development and in association with the National Council of Teachers of English African American Read-In. It was presented by the History Department, the Theresa and Edward O’Toole Library and the Office of Partnerships and Institutional Research.