New s of N ote Southern Poverty Law Center co-founder keynotes Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast; two activists honored Morris Dees, veteran civil rights activist and co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, was the keynote speaker at the university’s seventh annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast in February. Honored with Drum Major Awards for their work in the spirit of the deceased civil rights leader were: n Dr. Irving Fradkin, a Fall River native who founded Dollars For Scholars, which has blossomed into a nationwide scholarship program that has distributed more than $1.5 billion to more than 1.5 million students; n Carol Spencer, director of UMass Dartmouth’s College Now, the 40-yearold alternative admissions initiative which has helped more than 1,000 students complete a college education they may have been unable to pursue otherwise. Dees has been active in the civil rights movement for more than 40 years. An
Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, was the keynote speaker at the seventh annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast and Award Ceremony.
evening of contemplation while snowed in at a Cincinnati airport inspired him to forsake his work as a publisher and become involved in a new mission. Now chief trial counsel for the highly-regarded Southern Poverty Law Center, Dees has been in the forefront of litigation against hate groups and racism. In his pioneering role, he filed suit to stop construction of a white university in an Alabama city that
Talking with Nobel recipient Rigoberta Menchú Tum are (l-r) Labor Center Director José Soler, Manuel Ruiz and Anibal Lucas of Organización Maya K’iche of New Bedford, Professor Lisa Knauer, and Ibrahim Conteh, a UMass Dartmouth student from Sierra Leone.
already had a predominantly black state college. In 1969, he filed suit to integrate the all-white Montgomery YMCA. A recipient of numerous awards, Dees wrote A Season For Justice, his autobiography, in 1991, which the American Bar Association re-released in 2001 as A Lawyer’s Journey: The Morris Dees Story. His second book, Hate on Trial: The Case Against America’s Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi, chronicles the trial and $12.5 million judgment against white supremacist Tom Metzger and his White Aryan Resistance group for their responsibility in the beating death of a young black student in Portland, Oregon.
Nobel Prize recipient describes Guatemalan struggles The native Mayans of Guatemala continue to battle racism and genocide, while their persecutors suffer few consequences. That was one message that Rigoberta Menchú Tum, a survivor of Guatemala’s civil war and the 1992 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, brought to the filled main auditorium in April. Many in the audience were Mayans who have settled in New Bedford. An indigenous Guatemalan, Menchú Tum was a witness to, and survivor of, the massacres of the Guatemalan civil
U M a s s
war during the 1970s and 1980s, which claimed the lives of most of her family. As a member of the Maya K’iche ethnic group, she has much in common with the majority of Guatemalans living in this area. Dr. Lisa Maya Knauer, professor of sociology/ anthropology whose research centers on local Guatemalan and Salvadoran groups, brought Menchú Tum to the university. In her speech, Menchú Tum recounted the Mayans' impressive history, thus making their inability to secure basic human rights even more ironic and unfair. The Mayans have been systematically excluded from any positions within government or industry, said Menchú Tum, and generally live in fear. She asked the audience to understand the difficult conditions facing Mayans who have immigrated to America, and singled out José Soler, director of the university’s Labor Education Center, for his work on behalf of those immigrants. Menchú Tum's life is recounted in I, Rigoberta Menchú. She received the Nobel for her steadfast work on behalf of the Mayans, and has served in various capacities with United Nations groups. She now heads the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation, which develops projects in education, self-sufficient and sustainable economies for local communities, civic engagement, and human rights.
D a r t m o u t h
M a g a z i n e
|
Spring 2009
5