News Release

Local angle: Greenville, Miss.

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Hudson, first black female mayor
of Greenville, Miss., to speak Nov. 9

CHAPEL HILL - Heather McTeer Hudson, the first black female mayor of Greenville, Miss., will deliver the 13th annual Sonja Haynes Stone Memorial Lecture on Nov. 9 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Homegrown: The Evolution of African-American Leadership," will be the title of her free public talk at 7 p.m. at UNC's Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.

Music and remarks about the life and legacy of Dr. Sonja Haynes Stone will precede the speech. The center's signature program, the lecture honors its namesake. Stone directed UNC's African and Afro-American studies curriculum from 1974 to 1979 and was an associate professor until her death in 1991.

Hudson was born and raised in Greenville, the largest city in the Mississippi Delta. She graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta and Tulane University Law School in New Orleans, returning to Greenville afterward to join her father's law firm, McTeer & Associates.

Her displeasure with the city's progress led her to run for mayor. In 2003, Hudson, then 28, beat out her closest opponent by a landslide, making her the youngest black mayor in the nation. She has emphasized economic development and job creation.

Hudson also is working to improve education in Greenville. She co-founded Project Give Back, a nonprofit organization that helps seniors in the Greenville Public Schools complete college preparation materials.

Hudson is executive director of the nonprofit McTeer Foundation, which works with more than 2,000 youth in 25 Mississippi school districts. She has been featured in publications including The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., the Jackson Advocate, Jet magazine, Essence magazine and the Mississippi Business Journal.

Hudson also is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, a service organization of black women; Rotary International; the Mississippi Bar Association; the Mississippi Municipal League and the National Conference of Black Mayors.

Each year, the Stone lecture features a black woman whose work, scholarship and service to community mirror Stone's. Previous lecturers have included Angela Davis, Congresswoman Eva Clayton, Kathleen Cleaver, Sonia Sanchez, Atallah Shabazz and Alfre Woodard.
For more information, call the center at (919) 962-9001.

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/cityhallmayorphoto.JPG

Stone Center contact: Olympia Friday, (919) 962-7265, ofriday@email.unc.edu
News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589