Civil rights activist to speak on Martin Luther King’s legacy Jan. 27

Diane Nash, a prominent civil rights activist who helped start the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960, will talk about the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Jan. 27.

In conjunction with the national holiday honoring King the week before, Nash’s lecture, “Charismatic Leadership Has Not Freed African-Americans and It Never Will,” will be held at 7 p.m. in the Newcomb Hall Ballroom.

Nash became involved in the nonviolent movement in 1959 while a student at Fisk University and coordinated the Freedom Ride from Birmingham, Ala., to Jackson, Miss., in 1961. President John F. Kennedy appointed her to a national committee that promoted passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. In 1965, King presented her with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s highest award.