Hillyer Honors Seminar on the Role of Music in the Civil Rights Movement

Hillyer College Honors students recently participated in an interactive workshop about the role of music in the Civil Rights Movement as part of an Honors seminar, Stories of Change, taught by Hillyer Instructor of English Leslie Johnson. In this class, students have been exploring the role of artists as change-makers in societal movements and causes for positive change. 

The workshop was attended by members of the Connecticut Center for Nonviolence (CTCN), a foundation dedicated to conflict resolution and coalition building rooted in the philosophy and practices of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. CTCN’s Founder and Director Victoria Christgau and Arts Educator Anne Marie Williams performed a variety of songs from the Civil Rights Movement and discussed the historical and cultural background of the music. They also talked with the students about how music and artists continue to be in the forefront of social justice movements today. The students shared some of their own original "Ballads for Social Change" that they have been writing for class. The session was both lively and deep as they sang and spoke together.