PBS Documentary "A Call to Conscience" at CWU ft. guest speaker Megan Francis

Megan Ming Francis will be introducing and leading discussion on PBS Documentary “MLK: A Call to Conscience”. This free event, on the heels of the 50th Anniversary of MLK’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech, will spark discussion regarding political activism during a time of war. Francis, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington, specializes in the study of American politics, race and the development of constitutional law. Francis explores the early campaign against state sanctioned racial violence of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in her award-winning book, “Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State” (2014). Her passion for exploring civil rights issues and black political activism promises to shine in her discussion of the documentary. The featured documentary “MLK: A Call to Conscience” provides an intimate look at the controversy behind King’s famed “Beyond Vietnam” speech. It features interviews with individuals such as King’s legal advisor Clarence Jones and Poor People’s Campaign organizer Marian Wright Edelman, and is being shown six days after the speech’s 50th Anniversary (the speech was delivered at Riverside Church in New York, New York on April 4, 1967). This event is in conjunction with CWU’s 2017 NEA Big Read featuring Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”.