Providing "Black History in June", Lee Walker aims to educate the public, especially young people about the messages of Booker T. Washington during a symposium commemorating the 150th anniversary of Washington's birth.
The only event of its kind in the nation, the symposium is being held in Chicago, Sunday through Tuesday. Panel sessions will be held in the Thorne Auditorium on Northwestern University's downtown campus and are free and open to the public.
Walker, chief sponsor of the Booker T. Washington Symposium, is president of The New Coalition for Economic and Social Change, a think tank built around the philosophical views of Washington, and a senior fellow of The Heartland Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to discovering and encouraging free-market solutions to social and economic problems.
Calling Washington his hero, Walker spent a year planning the symposium. "I'm a Booker T. advocate. Chicago was a significant place for Booker," Walker told the Defender. He said that Chicago was the first place a black (Washington) spoke before a United States president. "About 16,000 people came to hear Booker speak in 1898. I wanted to do something."
Walker, a member of the Defender editorial board, believes that Washington should be understood by all people in a balanced way. He added that scholars have acknowledged that he was one of the most influential blacks in his time and perhaps of all time.
He invited twenty scholars and community leaders throughout the country to meet and publicly discuss the legacy of Washington during panel sessions and keynote addresses."
Booker T. Washington is one black leader you will not see celebrated in any high school during black history month," Walker said. "I'm providing an academic situation correcting lopsided history."
Among the participants in the symposium are: Margaret Clifford, granddaughter of Booker T. Washington; Hycel Taylor, former pastor of Pilgrim Baptist Church and former president of Operation PUSH; Roland S. Martin, Executive Director of the Chicago Defender; Cliff Kelley, host of WVON 1450-AM's Cliff Kelley Show; and Art Norman, anchor/reporter, WMAQ-TV/Ch. 5.
The panel sessions are marketed especially to students and educators in the black studies programs at local high schools and colleges.
"I want the young people to walk away with balanced information with respect to Booker T. Washington," he said.
[Author Affiliation]
by Kathy Chancy
Defender Contributing Writer
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