Civil Rights activist Ruby Sales to speak on faith and activism March 12 and 14

Ruby Sales

Related link:

• Podcast: "Faith & Activism: Shake These Walls" by Ruby Sales in chapel at Goshen College. 3/12/08

Speaker: Ruby Sales, a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement and founder of the Spirit House Project
Lectures: Wednesday, March 12 at 10 a.m. – “Faith and Activism” in the Church-Chapel;
Friday, March 14 at 10 a.m. – “I have the light of freedom and I’m going to let it shine,” in the Church-Chapel
Cost: Free and open to the public

GOSHEN, Ind. – As an African-American who grew up in Alabama during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, Ruby Sales participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. And then her life was changed in an instant when she was threatened by a man named Tom Coleman with a gun. Her fellow marcher, white seminarian Jonathan Daniels, pushed her out of the way and was instantly killed by the bullet. Despite death threats, she testified at the trial of Coleman, who was acquitted by a jury of 12 white men. The outcome of the trial though led to reform of the segregated procedures that were used to pick juries in Alabama.

Today, Sales is a passionate activist for racial, class and gender justice and is coming to Goshen College March 12 to 14 to speak about the connections between faith and activism. Sales will speak Wednesday, March 12 at 10 a.m. in the Church-Chapel during the college’s convocation on “Faith and Activism,” and again on Friday, March 14 at 10 a.m. in the Church-Chapel on “I have a light of freedom and I’m going to let it shine.” The lectures are free and open to the public.

Sales began activism work at age 15 with the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee in Lowdnes County, Ala. It was there that she came to understand what it means to be a part of a movement for social change and how to work alongside ordinary people in order to achieve it. She has preached around the country on race, class, gender and reconciliation, as well as working on community and nonviolence formation.

Sales attended Tuskegee Institute, Manhattanville College and Princeton University. In 1998, she received a master’s of divinity degree from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., where she specialized in feminist, African-American and liberation theologies. She is currently the director of the Spirit House Project, which is located in Columbus, Ga., and focuses on the interconnections of race, poverty, militarism and state violence. She also works with the Every Church a Peace Church movement.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.