Rethinking Race 2016: ABC reporter John Quiñones among the featured speakers

Taking the audience back to 1965 and a time when racial tensions were gravely heightened, the film “Selma” chronicles Martin Luther King’s campaign to secure equal voting rights for African-Americans. A showing of “Selma” in the Student Union Theatre on Friday, Jan. 29, at 8 p.m. will kick off UA’s two weeks of Rethinking Race: Black, White and Beyond.

Nineteen years ago, President William J. Clinton chose UA as the setting to host his first Town Hall Meeting on Race. Now, each February, the University provides Rethinking Race as a forum in which race and race-related issues can be discussed, examined, and hopefully, better understood. Diversity in the workplace, racism in higher education and cultural revolutionaries are just a few of the topics explored during Rethinking Race. The upcoming events for this year’s Rethinking Race will include a cultural film festival, face-to-face conversations, and lectures from authors, filmmakers and media personalities.

Among the featured speakers is John Quiñones, the host of “What Would You Do?” — an ABC news program. He will join the Rethinking Race line up on Feb. 9 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in Student Union Ballrooms A and B. Born into a family of migrant workers, Quiñones was ABC’s first Latino correspondent. He served as a news reporter in Texas and Chicago prior to joining ABC News in 1982.

“We've got several events focused on Akron,” says Dr. Amy Shriver Dreussi, co-chair of Rethinking Race. They include: 

• A lecture on race and housing patterns
• Summit County Historical Society trolley tours of Akron civil rights sites
• Dave Lieberth (former Akron deputy mayor) lecture on one of Akron's most controversial former residents, abolitionist John Brown

“I am really excited about the first Helen K. Qammar Memorial Lecture,” adds Dreussi. “Helen was one of the founders of Rethinking Race. Her dedication was profound and many of us still working to keep Rethinking Race alive do so in her memory.”

The inaugural speaker for the lecture is Shammas Malik, the late professor’s son. A class of 2016 Harvard Law student, Malik will discuss the history of efforts to create racial and socioeconomic equality in education, looking at where we are both as a nation and as a local community, on Monday, Feb. 8, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in the Student Union Theatre.

For a full calendar of events, visit the Rethinking Race website.

 Story by Tyeal Howell

Media contact: Lisa Craig, 330-972-7429 or lmc91@uakron.edu.