Overby Center Event: Overcoming a Segregated Background

A federal judge and a prominent Mississippi lawyer will discuss their journeys through the segregationist 1960s at the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics Wednesday, April 17, at 5:30 p.m.

Triggering the event is the publication of “Won Over,” written by William Alsup, now a U.S. district judge in San Francisco. He will be joined by high school and college classmate Danny Cupit and U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco, a former civil rights lawyer for the U.S. Justice Department in the 1960s. Henderson wrote the forward for Alsup’s book.

They will be interviewed by Charles Overby, chairman of the Overby Center, and a former classmate of Alsup and Cupit at Jackson Provine High School. Alsup and Cupit graduated from Mississippi State University.

In his book, Alsup writes of how he broke through the segregationist status quo in Mississippi.

“Their recollections will help trace some of the early progress in race relations in Mississippi, and it should serve as an appropriate way for the Center to close another successful year,” said Overby Fellow Curtis Wilkie.

A Harvard Law School graduate, Alsup was a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. He was named U.S. District Judge for the northern district of California in 1999 by President Clinton.

The program, which will be held in the Overby Center Auditorium, is free and open to the public. A reception will be held following the event, and arrangements have been made for parking in the lot adjacent to the auditorium.

Press release courtesy of The Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics