MACON, Ga. – Mercer University is making available to the general public a limited number of free tickets to Friday's convocation commemorating the 50th anniversary of the institution's integration and featuring a speech by Andrew Young, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Atlanta mayor.
The 3 p.m. convocation in Willingham Auditorium on the Macon campus will include a performance by the Mercer Singers and a video presentation featuring Mercer's integration trailblazers.
Ambassador Young, an ordained minister and former U.S. congressman, confronted segregation with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and galvanized a movement that transformed a nation through nonviolence. Ambassador Young was a key strategist and negotiator during the civil rights campaigns in Birmingham and Selma that resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Tickets may be picked up at The Grand Opera House box office on Mulberry Street between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., or at the University Center Box Office on the Mercer campus between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
A primary goal of the commemoration is to look at how Mercer's integration fit into a larger, national context. This year not only marks the anniversary of the University's integration, but also the anniversary of Dr. King's “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (April 16) and his “I Have a Dream” speech (Aug. 28), as well as the death of civil rights activist Medgar Evers (June 12) and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham. (Sept. 15).
About Mercer University
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University enrolls more than 8,300 students in 12 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing, health professions, and continuing and professional studies – on campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah – and four regional academic centers across the state. The Mercer Health Sciences Center, launched July 1, 2012, includes the University's medical, nursing, health sciences and pharmacy schools. Mercer is affiliated with four teaching hospitals – Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah, the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and The Medical Center and St. Francis Hospital in Columbus. The University also has educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. It operates an academic press and a performing arts center in Macon and an engineering research center in Warner Robins. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia to field an NCAA Division I athletic program. www.mercer.edu
