Several Alabama leaders will be honored in October during an event hosted by the Alabama Humanities Foundation.
The foundation's mission is to foster learning, understanding and appreciation of Alabama's communities and cultures through workshops and other events. During the third annual Alabama Colloquium, four fellows will be honored and will talk about Alabama life and the role of humanities have played in their lives.
The 2019 fellows are Marquita Davis, deputy director for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, civil rights attorney and activist Fred Gray, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center Director Jody Singer and retired executive editor of the New York Times Howell Raines. The Colloquium will be held on Oct. 7 at The Club in Birmingham. The venue opens at 11 a.m., followed by a luncheon at 11:30 a.m. and the program starts at noon.
“This is our third year of The Colloquium, and each year brings us new inspiration as we hear from such distinguished people who have had such an impact, not just in our state but around the world,” said AHF Executive Director Armand DeKeyser. “To think that they all have Alabama ties makes us proud and makes this event so special.”
Davis is on a mission to improve the quality of education for Pre-K students as the deputy director for early learning in the Pacific Northwest for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Before this role, Davis was the executive director of the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity, an agency that strives to reduce poverty and help lower-income citizens. She was appointed by two Alabama governors to become the first African American female to serve as the director of finance for Alabama, commissioner for the Alabama Department of Children’s Affairs and Pre-K director for the state of Alabama.
Davis earned her bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois University, a master’s degree from Alabama A&M University and a Ph.D. in Early Childhood Education and Development from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
In September 2018, Singer became the first female director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, which is one of NASA's largest field installations that has an annual budget of approximately $2.8 billion. The Hartselle native started her career with NASA in 1986 and has served multiple vital role since then. She was responsible for safety during the ground test program that led the agency back to flight after the Columbia accident.
She was deputy program manager for the Space Launch System program, or SLS, which is the rocket designed to send humans to deep space. She served as the deputy director of the center before she became head director. Singer earned multiple awards due to her service, including two Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive Awards - which is the highest honor for career federal employees.
After getting his law degree from an Ohio university in 1954, Fred Gray returned to his hometown in Montgomery with a mission to "destroy everything segregated." He represented the multiple black women who refused to give up their seats on the segregated Montgomery buses. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a district court ruling on his case, which made segregated public transportation unconstitutional.
Gray's legal legacy is woven throughout the Civil Rights Movement. His cases have ended gerrymandering in Tuskegee in 1960 and forced integration at all of Alabama's public colleges and universities in 1967. More than 100 k-12 school systems were also desegregated due to Gray's lawsuits. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. dubbed Gray " the chief counsel for the protest movement."
Raines is a journalist and author who started his career in Birmingham in 1964 while working for the Birmingham Post-Herald, WBRC -TV, the Tuscaloosa News and The Birmingham News. He worked as a political editor for the Atlanta Constitution from 1973-1974 and for the St. Petersburg Times in 1976, where he covered Jimmy Carter’s presidential candidacy. In 1978, he joined the Atlanta bureau of the New York Times.
Raines held multiple leadership roles during his 25 years at the Times. He was Atlanta Bureau Chief, National Political Correspondent, White House Correspondent, London Bureau Chief, Washington Editor, Editorial Page Editor from 1993-2001 and Executive Editor from 2001-2003. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for a New York Times Magazine article titled "Grady’s Gift." The story describes his friendship with Grady Richardson, a black housekeeper employed by his family during the era of segregation.
The Colloquium will be moderated by National Public Radio’s Michel Martin who is also the host of NPR’s All Things Considered. Nancy Grisham Anderson of Montgomery and Guin Robinson of Birmingham are honorary co-chairs for the annual event. People interested in attending the event can purchase tickets, tables and sponsorships at https://www.alabamahumanities.org/alabama-colloquium/.