Denison: 'Martin Luther King, the Chicago Freedom Movement and Lessons for Today

The Global Studies Seminar welcomes Michael Mayne, visiting assistant professor of English at Denison, presenting “Martin Luther King, the Chicago Freedom Movement and Lessons for Today.” As part of Denison’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, Mayne discusses King’s 1966 Chicago Campaign. The campaign looked different than those of Birmingham and Selma, and it failed to generate the same levels of national investment. King moved into a West Side tenement, focused on housing discrimination and poverty, and left the city after signing a shaky truce with the Daley administration. This talk explores the Chicago Campaign, reviews the tactics of nonviolent direct action, and considers the ways our present moment presents challenges and opportunities for progressive collective action. Denison University’s Global Studies Seminars are interdisciplinary intellectual forums to discuss and debate academic and policy issues of global importance.