Civil rights trailblazer Maria Varela was the first Latina to document through the camera lens the civil rights struggles of people in the rural South and Southwest. A community organizer who worked for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, her pictures and powerful narrative stories give an insider’s view of efforts to empower African-Americans and Latinos. She is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, and her photos have been featured at the Smithsonian Institution and elsewhere. Her presentation will focus on how the principles that governed the SNCC can continue to advance civil and human rights in the 21st century.
This event is sponsored by the Center for Social Justice, Human and Civil Rights and the School of Social Work.
