YMCA Community Conversation Hosts Bernard LaFayette, Jr.

ST. PETERSBURG — YWCA Tampa Bay will hold a Community Conversation featuring Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr., on Monday, March 31 at the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum, 2240 9th Ave. S., St. Petersburg. Refreshments will be served at 5:30 p.m., followed by the program from 6-­8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited.

Tampa native, longtime civil rights leader and author­ity on nonviolent social change, LaFayette is the co­-author of the book “In Peace and Freedom: My Journey in Selma,” which details his di­rectorship of the Alabama Voter Registration Project in Selma and subsequent his­toric Selma­to­, Montgomery marches.

Bernard LaFayette, Jr.

LaFayette is recognized as an authority on strategies for nonviolent social change and one of the leading advo­cates of nonviolent direct ac­tion in the world. He was a senior fellow at the Univer­sity of Rhode Island, where he helped to found the Cen­ter for Nonviolence and Peace Studies. The Center promotes nonviolence edu­cation using a curriculum based on the principles and methods of Martin Luther King, Jr. He is a Distinguished Senior Scholar­-in-­Residence at the Candler School of The­ology at Emory University in Atlanta and the Chair of the National Board of the South­ern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

LaFayette will relate his experiences as one of the pri­mary organizers of the Selma voting rights move­ment and perspectives on the struggle for black equality in the 20th century, as well as the importance of nonviolent education in today’s society.

About Community Con­versations

Established in 2013 by YWCA Tampa Bay, the Com­munity Conversations series is intended to promote dialogue and discussion about a variety of racial and social justice subjects, with the objectives of enhancing understanding, promoting healing and ener­gizing the community.