The Friends of Handley Regional Library are pleased to partner with the Winchester Area NAACP to present “Food and the Civil Rights Movement,” a program to discuss the important role that lunch counter sit-ins played in the greater movement for integration in the 1960s. Dr. James Coates will host the event, with Dr. Alem Asres as a featured speaker. They, along with four local activists from the area, will present a history of sit-ins, locally and nationally. After the program, the audience is invited to a Soul Food reception with desserts catered by Theresa Harris. The lecture will begin at 2 p.m., Saturday, January 20th in the Robinson Auditorium at Handley Library.
James R. Coates, Jr., is a retired college professor. His work focuses on teaching, cultural studies and sport, leisure and recreation in the African-American Community. Coates has lectured, consulted, presented and published articles and essays on sport, education, and African American history. He is currently working on further research and understanding of the career of Harold “Killer” Johnson. Coates completed his graduate degrees at the University of Maryland College Park. He has taught and lectured and presented in the United States, Canada, and several European countries, including Austria, Denmark and Germany.
Dr. Alem Asres, earned his Ph.D., in Social Foundations of Education with emphasis on Comparative and Multicultural Education from the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his MA degree in Urban Sociology and Urban Planning from Howard University, Washington D.C., and his BA in Political Science with emphasis in International Relations, from the University of Maryland, College Park. Asres has taught US Peace Corp Volunteers and served as instructor at the United States Foreign Service Institute. He was also a professor of American and African-American Literature, History and Cross-Cultural Communication Skills at the University of Maryland and at Bucknell University. Asres lectures and conducts workshops on Multiculturalism and on the Philosophical Aspects of Cultural Differences.
Robinson Auditorium is located on the lower level of Handley Library at 100 West Piccadilly Street in Winchester. For more information contact Barbara Dickinson at 540/662-9041 ext. 31 or reach her by email at friends@handleyregional.org .