A former Circuit Judge and founder of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, D’Army Bailey spoke Thursday at the Clinton School about his experiences as a civil rights activist.
Bailey discussed and read from his book, “The Education of a Black Radical: A Southern Civil Rights Activists Journey, 1959-1964.”
He told of his upbringing in segregated Memphis and his time as president of his freshman class at Southern University – the largest predominantly black college in the country – from which he was eventually expelled for leading a boycott against the school’s stance on segregation.
Through his actions, Bailey became a key player in the black student movement, which became a major part of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
Bailey was introduced by Clinton School student Graylon Johnson, a native of St. Louis and a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
Video of Bailey’s lecture will be posted soon at www.clintonschoolspeakers.com.