Civil Rights Legend and UMKC Educator Hold Public Conversation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 15, 2013
Contact: Kristin Pitts
816-235-6678; pittsk@umkc.edu
Kansas City, Mo. – Local civil rights legend Julia Hill and University of Missouri-Kansas City educator Mary Ann Wynkoop will hold a public conversation entitled “A Celebration of Kansas City Women Making History,” Wednesday, March 20, at 6:30 p.m., in the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library.
Newly retired from the executive board of the local NAACP, Hill will discuss her devotion to social causes as well as the activism of other Kansas City women.
Growing up in a segregated community prepared Hill for her decades-long fight for equality and inclusion. In the late 1950s, the elementary school teacher organized protests that convinced the operators of Kansas City’s downtown department stores to end discrimination in their lunch rooms. In the 1970s, she served as president of the local NAACP, fighting to ensure that the school district and local companies hired and promoted African Americans. Hill was a member of the Kansas City School Board at the height of its desegregation case in the 1980s, and became its president in 1990.
Wynkoop is retired from UMKC, where she was an assistant professor in the Department of History and director of the American Studies Program. She writes and lectures on American studies, women’s history, post-WWII American history, the Civil Rights Movement, and film history.
Wynkoop is currently preparing curriculum for a course based on the women who have contributed to Kansas City’s history. The course will be offered this fall at UMKC.
The event is co-sponsored by the UMKC College of Arts & Sciences Division of Continuing Education and the Kansas City Public Library. Admission is free. A 6 p.m. reception precedes the 6:30 p.m. event. RSVP online or call (816) 235-6496.
About the University of Missouri-Kansas City
The University of Missouri-Kansas City, one of four University of Missouri campuses, is a public university serving more than 15,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students, and celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2013. UMKC engages with the community and economy based on a four-part mission: life and health sciences; visual and performing arts; urban issues and education; and a vibrant learning and campus life experience. For more information about UMKC, visit www.umkc.edu. You can also find us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and watch us on YouTube.
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This information is available to people with speech or hearing impairments by calling Relay Missouri at (800) 735-2966 (TT) or (800) 735-2466 (voice).