2020 Keynote Speakers
Thursday, March 26, 8:00 a.m.
Dr. Sekou Franklin
Dr. Sekou Franklin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). He is the author of After the Rebellion: Black Youth, Social Movement Activism, and the Post-Civil Rights Generation (NYU Press, 2014) and edited the State of Blacks in Middle Tennessee (Urban League of Middle Tennessee, 2010/2011) and co-author (with Ray Block) of Losing Power: African Americans and Racial Polarization in Tennessee Politics (University of Georgia Press, 2020).
Dr. Franklin has worked closely with numerous groups in the last 15 years: Community Oversight Now, Urban EpiCenter, Tennessee Citizen Action, Tennessee Alliance for Progress, Ad Hoc Committee for Equity, TennCare Saves Lives Coalition, Nashville Black Covenant Coalition, Justice for Jefferson Street Coalition, Green-Collar Jobs Task Force of Nashville-Davidson County, Nashville Peace and Justice Center’s Leadership Institute, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Tennessee State Conference of NAACP. Currently, he is an instructor for the James Lawson Institute (JLI), which provides training in nonviolent resistance to activists, journalists, and organizers in North America. In March 2019, he participated in the South Asian Regional Institute on the Study and Practice of Strategic Nonviolent Action in Nepal that was hosted by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.
In November 2016, he co-coordinated the Tennessee Election Protection hotline in collaboration with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and has worked on voting rights cases. He received training in voting rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice’s Census and Redistricting Institute in 2010. He also serves on the Tennessee Advisory Committee for the US Commission on Civil Rights; and serves on the coordinating committee of Democracy Nashville-Democratic Communities.
He is currently the President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. He resides in North Nashville with his wife and two daughters.
Thursday, March 26, 1:00 p.m.
Elaine Weiss
Elaine Weiss is a Baltimore-based journalist and author, whose feature writing has been recognized with prizes from the Society of Professional Journalists, and her byline has appeared in many national publications, as well as in reports for National Public Radio. Her long-form writing garnered a Pushcart Prize “Editor’s Choice” award, and she is a proud MacDowell Colony Fellow. Her first book, Fruits of Victory:The Woman’s Land Army in the Great War was excerpted in Smithsonian Magazine online and featured on C-Span.
Weiss’ new book, The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote (Viking/Penguin, 2018) has critical acclaim from the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and NPR, among others, hailed as a “riveting, nail-biting political thriller” with powerful parallels to today’s political environment. She has presented talks about the book and the woman suffrage movement at the Library of Congress, National Archives, New York Historical Society, and many other venues. The Woman’s Hour was a finalist for the 2019 Chautauqua Prize and won the American Bar Association’s highest honor, the 2019 Silver Gavel Award.
Steven Speilberg’s Amblin production company has optioned the book for adaptation, with Hillary Rodham Clinton serving as Executive Producer.
Friday, March 27, 1:00 p.m.
Rev. Becca Stevens
Becca Stevens is an author, speaker, priest, social entrepreneur, founder and president of Thistle Farms. After experiencing the death of her father and subsequent child abuse when she was 5, Becca longed to open a sanctuary for survivors offering a loving community. In 1997, five women who had experienced trafficking, violence, and addiction were welcomed home.
Twenty years later, the organization continues to welcome women with free residences that provide housing, medical care, therapy and education for two years. Residents and graduates earn income through one of four social enterprises. The Global Market of Thistle Farms helps employ more than 1,800 women worldwide, and the national network has more than 40 sister communities.
Becca has been featured in the New York Times, on ABC World News and NPR, was named a 2016 CNN Hero and a White House “Champion of Change.” She was featured in the PBS documentary, A Path Appears, named Humanitarian of the Year by the Small Business Council of America and inducted into the Tennessee Women’s Hall of Fame. Stevens attended the University of the South and Vanderbilt Divinity School. She has been conferred 2 honorary doctorates.
Her newest book, Love Heals, was published by Harper Collins in September of 2017. Becca lives in Nashville with her husband, Grammy-winning songwriter Marcus Hummon, and their three sons.