Syracuse University celebrates Latino Heritage Month with lecture by Latino rights activist, author Miguel ‘Mickey’ Melendez Sept. 27

Syracuse University celebrates Latino Heritage Month with lecture by Latino rights activist, author Miguel ‘Mickey’ Melendez Sept. 27September 20, 2007Carol K. Masiclatclkim@syr.edu

The Office of Multicultural Affairs at Syracuse University will host activist and author Miguel “Mickey” Melendez, Thursday, Sept. 27, at 7 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium. The lecture is part of an ongoing celebration of Latino Heritage Month, Sept. 15-Oct. 15. Melendez is the author of “We Took The Streets” (Rutgers University Press, 2005).

“I applaud the Latino Heritage Month Committee in securing Miguel ‘Mickey’ Melendez as our commemorative speaker,” says James K. Duah-Agyeman, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs. “With his sense of activism and social justice, I am sure he will be an inspiration to all attendees, particularly to our students, to be socially engaged in the spirit of Scholarship in Action.”

Melendez became involved in the struggle for equality as a college student in the late 1960s. Along with other similarly concerned and dedicated student activists, he helped form the central committee of the New York branch of the Young Lords, a radical activist group dedicated to providing equal health care, child care and other needs of the Latino community in New York City.

Through bold and sometimes controversial direct action tactics and acts of civil disobedience, the Young Lords struggled to provide for the needs of their community members. From their base in East Harlem they operated clothing drives, day-care centers, food and health programs, and other initiatives designed to enrich and empower their community. Though successful in creating equal access and solidarity for a decade, the group eventually fractured in 1972.

Melendez has held senior positions in the New York City government and has taught in the Black and Hispanic Studies Department at Baruch College. He is the recipient of the Charles Revson Fellowship (2004-05) at Columbia University.

This event is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Lambda Sigma Upsilon Latino Fraternity Inc. (LSU).For more information, contact Josie Otero at (315) 443-9676.