ECU UNVEILS MLK PAMPHLET, WELCOMES CIVIL RIGHTS AUTHOR

Jonathan Tilove, a race and immigration reporter and author of Along Martin Luther King: Travels on Black America’s Main Streets, will speak about the slain Civil Rights hero at 7 p.m. Feb. 10 at East Carolina University’s Willis Building auditorium.
At the lecture, students from ECU’s GeoClub will unveil a pamphlet that focuses on the naming of streets and roadways for King.

“The pamphlet presents some interesting data on MLK street-naming as a national movement, the politics of getting King’s name on a street, and even a comparison of Greenville’s street vs. the one in New Bern,” said Derek Alderman, an ECU geography professor who studies King street naming.

More than 10,000 copies of the pamphlet will be distributed to the local area as well as national civil rights organizations, the King center, and civil rights museums across the country, Alderman said. He is the adviser to GeoClub, which is covering the cost of printing the pamphlet using ECU Student Government Association funds.

This is the fourth year the group has produced a map or document of current interest. ECU Geography professor Patrick Pease designed and edited the MLK pamphlet, collaborating with Alderman and graduate student Matt Mitchelson.

At the lecture, Tilove will read and show photographs from his book as well as answer questions about the increasingly common yet controversial memorials to the historical achievements of African Americans. The event is one of several activities being held in honor of Black History Month. It is sponsored by East Carolina University’s GeoClub, Department of Geography, and the Ledonia Wright Cultural Center.