The next installment in the Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Elihu Harris Lecture Series will feature civil-rights activist Dr. Bob Zellner and Jack O'Dell in an evening of shared dialogue on the state of the current civil rights  and social justice movement and the lessons learned from the movement during the 1960s.

The lecture series was created as a means to open what some say are long overdue serious talks on race, cultural diversity and social justice. Working closely with Merritt College, the lecture series is presented by the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center in Oakland. 

Invited this year are Civil Rights leaders and activists who have devoted much of their lives to the movement and those that have worked along side Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is the hope of the coordinators of this lecture series to inspire young adults toward new leadership not only on the community level, but also in the state and national arena. 

Each segment of the series will feature a public lecture, a variety of university and college classes, workshops, book signings and personal exchanges with the guests that have been invited to share historical information on King and the non-violent Civil Rights Movement and a look at strategies being developed for social change today.

Dr. Bob Zellner, worked alongside King and dedicated his life to civil rights. As a witness to the infamous "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Alabama in 1965, he was arrested, jailed and beaten at the Boston Federal Building organizing protests following the beating of community organizers and activists in Selma including John Lewis. He served as the first white field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and he was one of the leaders of the Freedom Rides and the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. 

In his recently published memoir, "The Wrong Side of Murder Creek, A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement," Zellner talks of being the grandson of Klansmen and how he ultimately became a white Southerner committed to racial justice.

O’Dell  began his organizing years in the National Maritime Union during WWII. He also worked alongside King as the Director of Voter Education for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In Chicago, O'Dell helped create Operation PUSH in 1971 and later the National Rainbow Coalition with Jesse Jackson. He was an editor of the quarterly journal, Freedomways, and a senior foreign policy advisor to the "Jesse Jackson for President" campaign in 1984. He also worked with Jackson as an international affairs consultant to the National Rainbow Coalition.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center promotes the principles of nonviolence and offers young people of all ethnicities and cultures opportunity to explore peaceful, non-violent solutions to social conflicts in today's communities. The Freedom Center serves individuals, organizations, schools and communities in the Greater Bay Area.

If You Go:

Barbara Lee and Elihu Harris Lecture Series

Student Forum with Zellner and O'Dell scheduled for noon this Thursday, Feb. 9, at Merritt College, 12500 Campus Drive, Oakland, in the Student Lounge.

Public Lecture begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9, at the Marriott Oakland Civic Center, 1001 Broadway - Jewett Ballroom. 

RSVP for lecture at (510) 434-3988. 

Free to attend; donations to this event and others in the series are welcome. 

Details/Registration: http://bit.ly/y4l7Vn