Sephira Bailey Shuttlesworth ('79) will serve as the keynote speaker for Union University's 5th Annual Black History Month Program. Mrs. Shuttlesworth, a former teacher and elementary school principal of 23 years, was born in Jackson, Tennessee to working-class parents who stressed education as a means to a better way of life. In 1965, Sephira and two of her siblings integrated Pope Elementary School in her home town. She began college at Union University while still a student at North Side High School, which resulted in her earning a B.S. Degree in Elementary Education (1979) in fewer than three years.
Mrs. Shuttlesworth moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1979, where she began her career as an educator. She earned a Master’s Degree, with Administrator’s Certification (1994), as well as, a Peace Education Certificate (1995) from the University of Cincinnati.
In 1986, she met Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth (one of the big 3 Civil Rights activists along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy) and remained friends with him for 20+ years. In November of 2006, the two were married at the church he founded in Cincinnati. Brimming with insider information and knowledge of the role, strategies and motives used by her late husband Rev. Shuttlesworth in the Birmingham, Alabama Civil Rights Movement, Mrs. Shuttlesworth brings her own unique perspective as she informs, excites, and challenges groups of all ages and standings to recognize that each of us has the power to alter the circumstances and the outcomes in our lives thereby creating harmony, justice, sustainability, balance, and equality in the world.
The theme of this year's program is
Black Leaders in American Culture and History. The community is invited to attend.
Program Reception begins at 2:30 pm with the Program starting promptly at 3:00 pm.
Please RSVP to Sarah Stinson, sstinson@uu.edu or 731.661.5421, by Wednesday, February 8 at noon.
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