Voice for grassroots organizing is MLK speaker at Manchester
Manchester University will mark the anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech on campus with a woman who is among those carrying on his work in our time.
Tayna Fogle is a mother, a former felon and a powerful leader in her community. As co-chair of the Kentucky Poor People's Campaign, her work has transformed policy and policymakers.
She will tell her story and share lessons in the Power of Voice: Darkest Past Now Greatest Asset at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4 in Cordier Auditorium on the North Manchester campus. It is free and open to the public.
Fogle is the Democracy Fellow at Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. She is also a former addict who spent nearly a decade in prison. She will speak about the power of grassroots organizing in Kentucky, whether it is to restore voting rights to former felons or using civil disobedience as a tool to make change.
“Tayna best represents the mission Martin Luther King was trying to achieve in the original Poor People’s Campaign,” said Caraline Feairheller, MU peace studies coordinator. “Her work is a direct link and continuation of what Dr. King began.”
On Feb. 1, 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to an overflow audience at the campus of what was then Manchester College. What no one would have predicted then was that this was to be King’s last campus address before his assassination that April. Each year, Manchester marks the occasion of his visit to North Manchester with a keynote address at the MLK Remembrance and Rededication Ceremony.
This presentation is part of the Values, Ideas and the Arts series, which enriches the student experience. It is sponsored by the MU Peace Studies Institute, with support from the Ira W. and Mable Winger Moomaw Lectureship/Seminar Fund.
Manchester is home to the oldest undergraduate peace studies program in the world, established in 1948 by Gladdys Muir.
For the media
- Caraline Feairheller: CFeairheller@manchester.edu
- Tayna Fogle describes her experience voting in Kentucky for the first time in over a decade after having her rights restored. (Produced by Marianna Hauglie, Carnegie-Knight News21)
Why was Dr. King at Manchester? - The school was founded by the Church of the Brethren, a historic peace church that continues its long tradition of practicing and advocating non-violent conflict resolution.
- Established in 1948, the Peace Studies Institute and Program for Conflict Resolution at Manchester was the first undergraduate peace studies program in the world.
- Manchester was the first university in the United States to hold permanent observer status with the United Nations, as a non-governmental organization (NGO).
- Andrew Cordier, who graduated from Manchester in 1922, was a key player in drafting the founding charter of the United Nations.
- Jean Childs, a student at Manchester in the 1950s, later married Andrew Young. Both were active in civil rights movement with King. Andrew Young went on to be a U.S. congressman, ambassador to the United Nations and mayor of Atlanta. (The Jean Childs Young Intercultural Center at Manchester opened in 2018.)
About Manchester
With campuses in North Manchester and Fort Wayne, Ind., Manchester University offers more than 70 areas of academic study to 1,400 students in undergraduate programs,a Master of Accountancy, a Master of Science in pharmacogenomics, a Master of Athletic Training a four-year professional Doctor of Pharmacy degree and a four-year dual degree in pharmacy and pharmacogenomics. Learn more about the private, northern Indiana school at www.manchester.edu.
Our mission
Manchester University respects the infinite worth of every individual and graduates persons of ability and conviction who draw upon their education and faith to lead principled, productive, and compassionate lives that improve the human condition.
January 2020