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Durr Lecture Series
For nearly 30 years, Auburn University at Montgomery has introduced the River Region community to globally recognized thought leaders and guided conversation about social justice and civil liberties through the Clifford Judkins and Virginia Foster Durr Lecture Series.
Founded in 1992, the Durr Lecture Series has introduced the AUM community to a variety of prominent intellectuals, authors, historians, activists, civic leaders and change agents, including such luminaries as Cornel West, Art Buchwald, Lady Bird Johnson, Fred Gray, Studs Terkel, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and Congressman John Lewis. Guest lecturers discuss aspects of the constitutional protection of civil liberties and other timely, relevant issues. The lectures are free and open to the public.
The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences offers students a traditional liberal arts education to meet the needs of the 21st century, allowing them to compete for a variety of careers in an increasingly complex and evolving world.
About the Durrs
Born in Montgomery, the late Clifford Durr rose to prominence as a lawyer who defended individuals accused of “disloyalty” during the New Deal and McCarthy eras. In 1926, he married Virginia Foster Durr, a Birmingham native and close friend of civil rights icon Rosa Parks and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Mrs. Durr attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts, an experience that inspired her to question segregation and to become a civil rights activist.
Mr. Durr represented Parks in her challenge of segregation laws that led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956. Clifford and Virginia Durr also knew Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and housed many volunteers who participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march.
The 2019 Clifford and Virginia Durr Lecture at AUM will be held in the fall of 2019 with the speaker to be announced.
Durr Lecturers by Year
2022
TBA
2019
TBA
2018
Cornel West
2017
James Forman, Jr.
2016
Clark Johnson
2015
Paul Chappell
2014
Steve Hahn
Hackney Symposium Speakers
Raymond Arsenault
Orville Vernon Burton
Steve Hahn
Patrician Sullivan
Declan McBride
2013
Vernon Jordan
2012
Robert S. Graetz
Andrew Grace
2011
Raymond Arsenault
2010
James K. Galbraith
2009
Kathleen Hall Jamieson
2008
Bryan Stevenson
2007
Jonathan Steele
2006
Taylor Branch
2005
J. Mills Thornton
2004
Patricia Sullivan
Morris Dees
2003
Diane McWhorter
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth
2002
Robert Ellis Smith
David Risser
2001
Blanche Weisen Cook
2000
Congressman John Lewis
1999
Geoffrey Cowan
1998
Wayne Flynt
Patricia Sullivan
1997
Studs Terkel
Charles Morgan Jr.
1996
John Kenneth Galbraith
Johnnie Rebecca Carr
1995
John Doar
Ray Jenkins
Burke Marshall
George Washington Carver Richardson Jr.
1994
Art Buchwald
1993
Hugo Black Jr.
Sheldon Hackney
1992
Lady Bird Johnson
Fred Gray
Tom Jonson
