Series begins Feb. 4 with educator Steve Perry.
SPRINGFIELD – The fourth-annual lecture series, "Lift Every Voice: Learning from the Past, Looking Toward the Future," begins Feb. 4, with a focus on education, at the Spring of Hope Church of God in Christ, 35 Alden St.
All lectures start at 6:30 p.m.
According to a release from the Rev. Talbert W. Swan II, the series is designed to "raise critical issues that affect society and to offer solutions." Its presentation during Black History Month also highlights the "contributions of African Americans."
Steve Perry, the first speaker, is founder and principal of Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, which is said to have sent all of its graduates to four-year colleges since the school opened in 2006. Perry, who was born to a teenage mother and raised in poverty, has been an education contributor for CNN and MSNBC, ESSENCE columnist, and is author of the book, "Push Has Come to Shove: Getting Our Kids the Education They Deserve - Even If It Means Picking a Fight," which is about his secrets to success and calls to action.
Perry has said that he believes success is determined by where someone finishes, rather than where they start out. With that philosophy, Perry has worked to provide a college education to many disadvantaged children.
The lecture series continues on Feb. 11, with Boyce Watkins, a professor of finance at Syracuse (N.Y.) University, and founder of "Your Black World Coalition." Watkins has appeared on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, and his been interviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Black Enterprise Magazine.
Watkins has published five books, including "Financial Lovemaking 101-Merging Assets With Your Partner In Ways That Feel Good." The book address the fact that millions of couples end their relationships due to conflicts over money.
On Feb. 18, the speaker will be Barbara Williams-Skinner, a lawyer and educator who was recently appointed by President Barack Obama to the President's Advisory Council of Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships
From 1974 to 1981, when Skinner was executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, she become one of the founders of the annual Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Prayer Breakfast. The White House recently named Skinner a "Champion of Change" for making an enduring imprint in her community and in American politics.
On Feb. 21, the speaker is scheduled to be Charles Williams, a trained child and adolescent psychotherapist and an educational psychologist who was once in foster care. Williams has joint faculty appointments in psychology and education at Drexel University, where he served as the founding director of the Center for the Prevention of School-Aged Violence. He is an associate at the Stoneleigh Foundation, where he is studying the effects of social skills training and mentoring on life outcomes for foster youth.
Williams has been invited by the White House to serve as a plenary speaker for the White House Conference on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Williams has been appointed by Philadelphia Mayor, Michael Nutter, to the Community Oversight Board for the Department of Human Services, where he serves as chair of the subcommittee on Older Youth/Aging Out.
Williams is commonly called upon by national media outlets such as Fox News, CNN, USA Today, and the Christian Science Monitor, for his insights.
The series ends on Feb. 25 with Joe Madison, also known as the Black Eagle. Madison has been named one of Talker's Magazine's "10 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts" nine times. Madison is heard weekdays in the morning from coast-to-coast on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio channel 169 and WOL-AM in Washington DC.
In 1974, when Madison was 24-years-old, he was named executive director of the 10,000 member Detroit NAACP, making him the youngest person ever to hold that position and was able to show leadership.
Madison began his radio career in 1980 at WXYZ-AM in Detroit.
Madison has engaged in hunger strikes in opposition to apartheid in South Africa, genocide and modern-day slavery in Sudan.