QVCC Celebrates Black History Month: “African Americans and the Vote” with Dr. Stacey Close

Black History Month 2020February is Black History Month. Quinebaug Valley Community College invites you to join us on February 12 at 10am-2pm in the Robert E. Miller Auditorium as we celebrate Black History Month and the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the Fifteenth Amendment. QVCC is honored to welcome back Dr. Stacey Close, Associate Provost/Vice President for Equity and Diversity at Eastern Connecticut State University, for the presentation, “African Americans and the Vote.”

Dr. Stacey CloseIn addition to the sesquicentennial of the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) and the right of black men to the ballot after the Civil War, the year 2020 also marks the centennial (100th anniversary) of the Nineteenth Amendment and the culmination of the women’s suffrage movement. The theme speaks to the ongoing struggle on the part of both black men and black women for the right to vote. Through voting-rights campaigns and legal suits from the turn of the twentieth century to the mid-1960s, African Americans made their voices heard as to the importance of the vote. The contribution of black suffragists occurred not only within the larger women’s movement, but within the larger black voting rights movement.

This presentation is free and open to the public. Sponsored by QVCC’s Cultural Programming Committee.