2020 Acker Lecture Postponed
2020 Acker Lecture Postponed
For Immediate Release
Mar. 9, 2020
Note: The 2020 Acker Lecture has been postponed.
Peggy Wallace Kennedy, the daughter of two Alabama governors and the author of “The Broken Road: George Wallace and A Daughter’s Journey to Reconciliation,” will deliver the 2020 William M. Acker Jr. Visiting Lecture at Birmingham-Southern College.
Kennedy will speak on Thursday, April 9, at 11 a.m. at Norton Theater on the 365英国上市官网 campus. The hour-long event is free and open to the public. Signed copies of “The Broken Road” will be available for $28 before and after the event, in partnership with The Alabama Booksmith.
The four-term governor of Alabama and presidential candidate was notorious for his stance on segregation. But he was also a larger-than-life father to young Peggy, who was taught to smile, sit straight, and not speak up as her father took to the political stage. At the end of his life, Wallace came to renounce his views, although he could never attempt to fully repair the damage he caused. But after her own political awakening, Kennedy dedicated her life to spreading a message of peace and compassion.
In her memoir, published in December 2019 by Bloomsbury Publishing, Kennedy looks back on the politics of her youth, the loss at age 18 of her mother, Gov. Lurleen Wallace, and her attempts to reconcile her adored father with the man who coined the phrase “Segregation now. Segregation tomorrow. Segregation forever.” The book has received significant national attention, including interviews with and reviews by The Today Show, CNN, Vanity Fair, National Public Radio, the New York Times, the Washington Post and The Bitter Southerner.
Kennedy’s talk is the 2020 event in the William M. Acker Jr. Visiting Lecture Series, funded through a generous gift from the late Hon. William M. Acker Jr. ’49, a retired U.S. senior district judge for the Northern District of Alabama. The endowed fund brings distinguished speakers to campus with a focus on the history of the American Republic.
Birmingham-Southern College is a four-year, private liberal arts institution affiliated with the United Methodist Church and accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The institution is the result of a 1918 merger of Southern University, founded in Greensboro, Alabama, in 1856, with Birmingham College, founded in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1898. Birmingham-Southern has students from 34 states and 13 countries and a student/faculty ratio of 12:1.