Special event featuring Dr. Terrence Roberts

Rosa Parks African American Theme House and I invite you to a very special event, featuring Dr. Terrence Roberts and a panel of UCSC students.

In 1957, Dr. Roberts was 15 years old when he joined eight other students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was a year of torment, including physical attacks, and Roberts often feared for his life. Yet he got through the year, but then the school district closed all schools in an attempt to halt integration.

Dr. Roberts's 2009 memoir, Lessons from Little Rock, details his childhood in the segregated South and is a testament to the personal resolve that he and each member of the "Little Rock Nine" used to survive their year at Central High. He is also the author of Simple, Not Easy: Reflections on Community Social Responsibility and Tolerance.

Dr. Roberts visits UCSC and will be joined by a panel of students for an engaging discussion on Tuesday, Feb 1, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Stevenson Event Center. The event will open with a performance by Rainbow Theater.

You are also encouraged to attend Dr. Roberts’s keynote address, "Simple, Not Easy: Reflections on Social Responsibility and Race," at UC Santa Cruz’s 27th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Convocation at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, January 31 at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium.