Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration 2014

The University of Mary Washington Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Keynote Speaker: Ernest Green

Tuesday, Jan. 21| 7 p.m. | Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall

Sponsored by the Office of the President

Ernest Green was one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Green was the first African American student to graduate from the school in 1958. In 1965, Green became involved in employment law with a building-trade apprenticeship for the Adolph Institute, a project to help minority women in the South find opportunities for professional careers, and later directed the A. Phillip Randolph Education Fund from 1968 to 1976. Between 1977 and 1981, he served as assistant secretary in the Labor Department under President Carter and has worked in the private sector for consulting firms in corporate America since 1981. In 1999, he and the other people of the Little Rock Nine were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor given to a civilian, for outstanding bravery during the integration of Little Rock Central High School, by President Bill Clinton.