(Black PR Wire) The Chief Legal Officer for the Southern Poverty Law Center, Derwyn Bunton, is the keynote speaker for Alabama State University’s Department of History and Political Science Black History Month Program.

Bunton will explore this year’s National Black History Month theme ​​– “Black Resistance” ​​–​ on Tuesday, February 28, from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in ASU’s Ralph D. Abernathy Hall Auditorium.​The event is open to the public.

Derryn Moten, chair of the Department of History and Political Science, said in the more than 400 years that Black people have been in America, resistance has taken on many forms — from slave revolts and insurrections to boycotts, protests and marches.

“Mr. Bunton will talk about How African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppressions, and how the resilience of a people who not only struggled for freedom and justice but also whose resistance leaves a legacy of triumph,” Moten said.

Moten pointed out that by resisting, Black people have achieved triumphs, successes, and progress as seen at the end of slavery, dismantling of Jim and Jane Crow segregation in the South, increased political representation at all levels of government, desegregation of educational institutions, the passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964,  and more.

More about Derwyn Bunton

As SPLC’s Chief Legal Officer, Bunton is responsible for the strategic direction of the SPLC’s litigation to ensure that every case its attorneys pursue advances the organization’s four key impact goals: fighting to protect democracy, dismantling white supremacy, eradicating poverty and ending mass incarceration. 

Previously, Bunton led the Orleans Public Defenders office in Louisiana, where he drew attention from state and national media for his dogged defense of indigent defendant rights.   Under his leadership, the office won major awards for outstanding achievement in providing legal defense for indigent people from the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, the National Association for Public Defense and the Southern Center for Human Rights.