Montgomery, Ala. –   Diane Nash, a prominent civil rights activist who helped start the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960, will talk about the ongoing legacy of resistance in the Civil Rights Movement in the auditorium of Troy University Rosa Parks Museum on Thursday, Feb. 23, at 7 p.m.

Nash became involved in the nonviolent movement in 1959 while a student at Fisk University and coordinated the Freedom Ride from Birmingham, AL to Jackson, MS in 1961.  President John F. Kennedy appointed her to a national committee that promoted passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.  She was arrested numerous times for her civil rights activities and spent time in a Mississippi jail while pregnant with her first child.

This event, sponsored by the Black History Committee of Troy University, is free and open to the public.

“We are excited and honored to have a woman of Ms. Nash’s stature offer a perspective on the ongoing legacy of resistance, informed by her own participation in the historic struggles of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s,” Dr. Fred Beatty, Chairman of the University’s Black History Committee, said.

Nash’s work is cited in many books, magazine and newspaper articles, as well as television and film documentaries.  Nash’s role in activism was included in the Public Broadcasting System’s award-winning series, Eyes on the Prize:  America’s Civil Rights Years – 1954 to 1965.

Nash was a leader in a student sit-in movement in Nashville, TN, spurring that city to desegregate its lunch counters.  She also helped start the Right to Vote movement in Selma, AL, which played a major role leading to the Voting Rights Act.  In 1965, King presented her with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s highest award and the John F. Kennedy Library presented her with their “Distinguished American Award” in March 2003.

Now a resident of Chicago, Nash works in real estate in addition to lecturing at colleges and universities around the country.  Ms. Nash will be introduced by Charles Cobb, a fellow Freedom Rider.