News Release

Activist Malika Sanders to deliver
Stone Memorial Lecture on Nov. 8

By DAMIEN JACKSON
Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History

CHAPEL HILL — Youth and human rights activist Malika Sanders will discuss "Principles of Social Justice for a New Generation" in a Nov. 8 lecture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The free, public talk, at 7 p.m. in the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, will constitute the center’s 12^th annual memorial lecture honoring the late Dr. Stone, a UNC professor and center advocate.

Sanders, an accomplished activist and community leader, has fought for change on local and international levels.

At age 21, the Alabama native was appointed executive director of the 21st Century Youth Movement, a Selma-based nonprofit created in 1985 by civil rights veterans and focused on youth empowerment, leadership training and community service.

Under Sanders’ guidance, 21^st Century has grown into a 1,500-member organization of high school and college students with 35 chapters in the United States and three in western Africa.

Participants have established a credit union, prevented a landfill from polluting a community and secured referendums that created more resources for local schools.

In August 2003, Sanders was one of three young adult conveners of the 40th Anniversary of the March on Washington. Two months later, Essence Magazine tagged her as one of "50 Women Who Are Shaping Our World."

Sanders’ work with 21^st Century has brought her a Martin Luther King Freedom Fighters Award, the Ashe Youth Leadership Award, a 2002 Reebok Human Rights Award and a 2003 Redbook Mothers and Shaker’s Award.

Sanders’ reputation as a leader was solid long before she assumed the top post at 21^st Century. At 16, she co-founded Student Movement Against Racial Tracking (SMART).

The group gained national attention by protesting the inequitable practice of "ability grouping" and inspiring high school students and their parents to temporarily shut down a Selma high school. As a result, the city changed its policies to accommodate a more objective and inclusive process for black students.

Sanders also worked to organize the National Hip Hop Political Convention in Newark, N.J., in 2004. She continues her work against student tracking and for education with the Institute for Popular Education and the Coalition of Afrikans Reclaiming Education, two groups promoting education as an important human rights issue.

The Sonja Haynes Stone Memorial Lecture is the center’s signature program. It features African-American women whose work, scholarship and service epitomize the spirit of Stone.

Previous lecturers have included Angela Davis, Congresswoman Eva Clayton, Kathleen Cleaver, Sonia Sanchez, Atallah Shabazz and Alfre Woodard.

For more information, contact the center at (919) 962-9001 or visit www.unc.edu/depts/stonecenter .

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Photo URL: www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/sanders_malika.jpg 

Stone Center contact: Damien Jackson, (919) 962-9001, dtjack@email.unc.edu
News Services contacts: Print, L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589; broadcast, Karen Moon, (919) 962-8595