Johnson C. Smith University will host a lecture and exhibit titled: “A Muslim Cult? Malcolm X’s 1963 visit to Charlotte and Johnson C. Smith University.”
This free event is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m. inside the Sarah Belk Gambrell Auditorium – Biddle Hall.
Malcolm X spoke on the JCSU campus in February 1963. The lecture and exhibit will commemorate this often-forgotten historical event in JCSU’s history.
Makheru Bradley will lead the discussion, followed by the oral accounts of two JCSU alumni — Richard F. Dozier and the Rev. Franklin Delano Colclough Sr., both of whom were present for the original speech.
The James B. Duke Memorial Library will display six panels from The Charlotte Observer and the Charlotte News (January and February 1963) that reported on Malcolm X’s visit to Charlotte.
Bradley, the guest speaker, is a social activist, writer and historian. He has either worked with or been a member of the following organizations: The Black Panther Party, Student Organization for Black Unity, Congress of African People, African Liberation Support Committee, Malcolm X Liberation University, Association for the Study of African Civilizations, The Million Man March-Local Organizing Committee, National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, the Kwanzaa Task Force and the Nguzo Saba Liberation Academy.
Makheru currently serves as the senior mshauri (advisor) for The Males Place-Manhood Training Support Group. He was given the 2010 NAACP President’s Award, presented by the Charlotte chapter of the NAACP.
Immediately following the lecture, the exhibit will be unveiled and light refreshments will be served in the library.
