Students will have a chance to talk poverty and civil rights with best-selling author Cornel West and talk-show host Tavis Smiley tonight at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service in Pugh Hall.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for the 6 p.m. event, which will be held in the Pugh Hall Ocora, said Shelby Taylor, the center's digital and communications director.
Admission is free and open to the public.
The first 300 attendees will sit in the Ocora. The speeches will be streamed live to spillover attendees in the MacKay Auditorium.
This event will formally unveil the Center's interactive Civil Debate Wall, which consists of five 46-by-26-inch touchscreen panels.
Each week, the Wall will display a discussion question about public policy. Students can share their opinions, debate and follow conversations.
Smiley and West posed this week's question: "Is Occupy Wall Street the Civil Rights Movement of our time?"
About 80 students have responded, according to civildebatewall.com.
Today at 1 p.m., West and Smiley will speak at the Bo Diddley Community Plaza in support of Move to Amend's Occupy the Courts event.
