NOVA Dean Discusses Civil Rights History at MLK Program for Inmates

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, Dr. Jimmie McClellan, the Dean of Liberal Arts at Northern Virginia Community College’s Alexandria Campus, gave a special lecture on Civil Rights history to the inmates and staff of the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center on Thursday, January 24. This lecture was part of the monthly inmate programs promoting education.

Dr. McClellan, who taught an African American history course for student-inmates as part of the Sheriff’s Office and NOVA’s Open Roads program last summer, discussed the evolution of Civil Rights in the United States, from Reconstruction and the Jim Crow-era to the succession of Civil Rights victories including Brown v. Board of Education, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and passage of federal Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s.

Accompanying Dr. McClellan was adjunct professor Dr. Marius Ratolojanahry who will be teaching a course on the Politics of Modern Africa this semester in the detention center.

Photo: Dr. Jimmie McClellan, who taught the first NOVA course in the Open Roads program last summer, returned to the Detention Center to speak about Civil Rights history.