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Freedom City Lecture – We Shall Overcome!
October 17, 2017 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Gallowgate Room (2nd Floor) Wheelchair accessible.
We Shall Overcome! America and the Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland
Dr Sarah Campbell (Newcastle University)
In 1963 women in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, picketed the local council to protest against appalling housing conditions and discrimination in housing allocation in the area. They held placards claiming ‘If our religion is against us, ship us to Little Rock’ and ‘Racial discrimination in Alabama hits Dungannon’, indicating the resonance and influence the civil rights struggle in America in the 1950’s and 1960’s had in Northern Ireland. Fifty years ago, in 1967, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was founded in Belfast to campaign against discrimination. This talk will examine the role of transnational networks in shaping Northern Ireland’s emerging civil rights movement and explore how these links are reinforced through memories and commemoration of the movement. In doing so, it will question whether the comparisons between events in the US and Northern Ireland in the 1960s are useful or limited.
Part of Freedom City 2017 – a city wide programme across Newcastle marking the 50th anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. receiving an honorary degree from Newcastle University.
Freedom City 2017 is a partnership between Newcastle University, Northern Roots and NewcastleGateshead Initiative.
www.freedomcity2017.com
