MEDIA ADVISORY

Alaska Civil Rights Day 2000 celebrations at the University of Alaska Fairbanks will feature keynote speaker and nationally known civil rights activist Bob Zellner. The program begins at 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 17 in the Wood Center Ballroom with scheduled performances by the "Inu-Yupiak" Native student dance group, the Latino/a Student Association and the Black Awareness Student Union. The activities will also be heard via audioconference at campuses in Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue and Dillingham.

Alaska Civil Rights Day was established by the University of Alaska Board of Regents in 1994 to honor Martin Luther King Jr., Alaska Native leaders and organizations, and others who have led civil rights initiatives benefiting all Alaskans. Classes will not be held Monday, but university offices will be open for business, including late registration and fee payment.

King recruited Zellner to join the civil rights movement in the early 1960s. Although both his father and grandfather were Ku Klux Klan members, Zellner became the first white Southern field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, promoting equality and integration. In 1964, Zellner traveled to Nashoba County, Miss. with a team investigating the disappearance of three civil rights workers in the area. The murder investigation was later depicted in the 1988 Oscar-winning movie "Mississippi Burning" starring Gene Hackman.

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CONTACT: Event Coordinator Nathan McCowen, UAF Student Activities Office, at (907) 474-6027 or Jillian Swope, University Relations, at (907) 474-7778.

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