Evening with Hollis Watkins a Great Success
Over 100 members of community attend
Southside Family Charter School hosted a dinner and a conversation on The Civil Rights Movement: Then and Now. Current and former students introduce Mr. Watkins, who shared his experiences during the movement, his thoughts about the power of young people to create change and his work to build a more equitable, sustainable world.
Hollis Watkins is a hero of the southern Civil Rights Movement and a longtime friend of the Southside Family Charter School. Every three years, when students take their Civil Rights Study Tour, they meet with Hollis in Jackson Mississippi.
"There’s not enough room on our bus to take everyone who would like to travel and study with us so we are thrilled to share this opportunity with our community to meet and learn from someone who challenged segregation as teenager, and who continues the fight for racial justice today," says Eliza Goodwin, SFCS Executive Director.
About Hollis Watkins:
Hollis joined SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) when he was 17 years old and later became its Vice President. Today, he is President of Southern Echo, a multi-generational organization dedicated to empowering local residents throughout the south. Hollis co-founded Southern Echo to “make political, economic, educational and environmental systems accountable to the needs and interests of the African-American community.”
Hollis has pioneered an intergenerational model of community organizing that encourages participation of youth, bringing them into positions of responsibility. “When I was much younger, I got my strength from the older folks; and now I’m a little bit older and I get my strength from young people.”
*View the Star Tribune article about the event
