Winthrop Alumnus and Noted Historian Derrick Alridge to Deliver Keynote Speech at City's Annual MLK Jr. Prayer Breakfast

ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA — Derrick Alridge '88, '92, a professor of education in the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education and director of UVA's newly created Center on Race and Public Education in the South, will deliver the keynote speech at the city of Rock Hill's 15th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Prayer Breakfast.

The breakfast will be held on Monday, Jan. 15, from 7:30-9 a.m. at First Baptist Church located at 481 Hood Center Drive.

Alridge's speech is entitled "Martin Luther King Jr. and the Question of Chaos or Community?"

According to Alridge, the speech explores King's question to America in his 1967 text: "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?" "Fundamentally, King was pondering whether America would take a path toward a perpetual state of racial and political chaos or a path toward racial harmony and global peace," said Alridge. "The speech will engage King's teachings and ideas in these trying times and encourage us to consider what we can learn from King today. I will also point out that King called school teachers the ˜foot soldiers' of the movement. Consequently, I will briefly discuss Rock Hill teachers who were pivotal in civil rights. The speech will conclude by encouraging each of us to build on King's vision of a ˜Beloved Community' within a multicultural world, which he called ˜The World House.'"

Alridge, a U.S. educational and intellectual historian whose work examines African-American education and the civil rights movement, is the author of "The Educational Thought of W.E.B. Du Bois: An Intellectual History" and is the creator of Teachers in the Movement (TIM), a civil rights oral history project focused on interviews with elementary, secondary and university teachers and educators about their participation in and efforts during the civil rights movement.

As TIM project director, Alridge works with a research team to conduct on-camera interviews with educatorsof all different races and social backgroundsin Virginia, Maryland, Georgia and the Carolinas about their experiences as teachers during the civil rights movement. The project "illuminates the importance of teachers and community leaders as activists," Alridge said.

In recent trips to Rock Hill, Alridge has interviewed several retired teachers, including Cynthia Plair Roddey '67, Winthrop's first African-American graduate student. He also collaborates with Winthrop's Ellison Capers Palmer Jr. Professor of History Jason Silverman, Alridge's mentor and a consultant for TIM.

Alridge earned a B.A. in history and a M.Ed. in secondary education at Winthrop. He received a Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University.

Tickets to the Jan. 15 Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Prayer Breakfast are $15 and may be purchased at the city of Rock Hill's human resources office, city management, Rock Hill Housing and Neighborhood Services and the Rock Hill Police Department.