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Nonviolence and Peaceful Change:
A Sister Cities Dialogue
Thursday,
October 22, 1:00-2:30 p.m.
Nashville Main Public Library, Auditorium
The opening of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 was
the achievement of a freedom movement inspired by earlier examples of nonviolence and civil courage. In 1989 leaders
of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement watched as citizens sang "We Shall Overcome" in the streets of East German cities
and expressed their anthem's embrace of "the whole wide world around."
In observance of the 20th anniversary
of these events -- which made Nashville's sister city partnership with Magdeburg, Germany possible -- civil rights leaders
from both cities will conduct a public dialogue on connections, comparisons, and common lessons of their nonviolent struggles
for peaceful social change. The event is free and open to the public.
Nashville Panelists
Rev. Dr. Bernard LaFayette
Dr. LaFayette was a co-founder of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960, a leader of the Nashville and Selma movements, and the National Program
Administrator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). A former president of the American Baptist College in
Nashville, he is an international authority on nonviolence education and currently holds a position as Distinguished
Senior Scholar-in-Residence at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
Rev. Dr. C. T. Vivian As a student leader in the Nashville
Movement in 1960, Reverend Vivian, along with Diane Nash, confronted Mayor Ben West on the steps of the Metro Courthouse
persuading him to make a public statement that segregation was wrong. Reverend Vivian later participated in the Freedom Rides
and the Selma Movement and became National Director of Affiliates for the SCLC. An internationally recognized author and speaker,
he founded the C. T. Vivian Leadership Institute in 2008, which serves minority communities through organizing, leadership
training, and policy advocacy.
Magdeburg Panelists
Mr. Carsten Boek
Mr. Boek was a member of the Magdeburg Citizen Committee for the
Dissolution of the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) in 1989/90 and active in the New Forum as well as the publication of
the alternative newspaper Die andere Zeitung. He remains active in civil rights, works as a graphic designer,
and in this capacity has contributed to numerous exhibits of the Moritzplatz Memorial (at the site of the former Stasi
detention and interrogation center) including the 2005 exhibit "Autumn 1989 in Magdeburg." Ms. Ulrike Groß Ms. Groß was an active participant in the 1989
Monday prayers and demonstrations and contributed to the editing of the 1991 book Incitement to Nonviolence
- Autumn 1989 in Magdeburg. She is the deputy director of the Moritzplatz Memorial where she has worked in
the counseling of victims of political persecution by the East German state. Ms. Groß worked with Mr. Boek on
the 2005 exhibit referenced above and, together with the Magdeburg Museum of Cultural History, prepared the photographic exhibit
"Autumn 1989 in Magdeburg" currently on display at the Nashville Main Public Library. Rev.
Hans-Jochen Tschiche Reverend Tschiche became the director of the Evangelical
Academy of Saxony-Anhalt in 1978 and participated in the church opposition within the East German peace movement from the
beginning of the 1980s. He largely inspired the network "Concretely for Peace" and served as its theological adviser.
In 1989 he co-founded the New Forum and served as its representative at the political round tables for the Magdeburg region.
He was a member of the East German legislature until March 1990 and subsequently a member of the united German parliament
until December 1990. He served in the legislature of Saxony-Anhalt from 1990 until 1998, where he was a leader of the
"1990 Alliance"/Green Party.
The dialogue is a part of the month-long
Sister Cities program - "Magdeburg: Autumn 1989" - commemorating the role of Nashville's German sister city in the events
leading to the opening of the Berlin Wall. Following the discussion,
the audience is invited to join the panelists in a tour of the photographic exhibit across from the Civil Rights
Room on the second floor of the library. The panel discussion is
hosted by Sister Cities with the support of the Nashville Public Library, Tennessee State University, Vanderbilt University,
the "Freedom Without Walls" initiative of the German Embassy, the Magdeburg Public Works Department, and Hubbard,
Berry, and Harris, PLLC.
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Hubbard, Berry
& Harris, Pllc
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