Public Relations

NWACC to recognize MLK Jr. Day Wednesday, Jan. 23

BENTONVILLE (Monday, January 08, 2008) – NorthWest Arkansas Community College will recognize the contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a program noon to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23, in Student Center Room 108.

A documentary on Silas Hunt will be shown with a panel discussion at the end.

Panel members will include Cynthia Nance, dean of the UA Law School Fayetteville, Chris Erwin, executive production manager, UA Media Center Fayetteville, and Jerry H. Moore, director of NWACC Upward Bound and a Silas Hunt historian.

The program is open to the public.

The documentary chronicles the journey of Silas Herbert Hunt, the first African-American to enter a major southern land grant university in 1948.

The film is artistically edited for impact using an array of historical photographs, period film and dramatizations to connect the history with a modern audience.

The documentary holds historical significance beyond the struggles of one man. Hunt’s life story is interwoven with the struggles of civil rights leaders in Arkansas and those who sought to change the system from the inside. Hunt is given both a common man and hero status throughout the film.

It shows Hunt forging a path towards desegregation of higher education before the height of the civil rights movement, but it also shows how many of Hunt’s challenges were shared by almost all African-Americans living in the South at that time.

Since its release the Silas Hunt documentary has won five awards from the video and film industry.
It has won an Aegis (Winner’s Trophy), a gold Aurora, a bronze Telly, a platinum Ava, and a gold Davey award for excellence in documentary film.

Silas Hunt Day will be observed Feb. 2 in the state of Arkansas.

NWACC will be closed in observance on Monday, Jan. 21, 2008.

For questions/comments on this content, please contact Jim Hall.