Columbia, SC—February 6, 2024, Benedict College welcomes two-time New York Times best-selling Author, Civil Rights Activist, and Attorney Bakari Sellers as the keynote speaker for Black History Month. Sellers will discuss “Black Jobs: A History of African Americans and Work,” on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at 10:30 a.m. at Antisdel Chapel on the campus of Benedict College.
“Attorney Sellers is one of the most prolific voices of our time and culture, and we welcome him back to our campus,” said Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis, President and CEO of Benedict College. “He is the ideal person to speak to our young scholars as a native of rural South Carolina. His rise to becoming this state’s youngest legislator to one of the leading advocates for equity in this country will certainly resonate with our students.”
Sellers is the son of Gwendolyn Sellers and civil rights leader Dr. Cleveland Sellers. While his dad helped shape movements working alongside Stokely Carmichael, Bayard Rustin, and Malcolm X, Sellers came into his own, helping to write the blueprint for today’s movements with the likes of Representative James Clyburn, Attorney Benjamin Crump, and President Barack Obama.
He forged his path from very early on. He entered Morehouse College at the age of 16. After graduating from the University of South Carolina Law School, he became the youngest legislator in the South Carolina state legislature at 22. In penning both his memoir My Vanishing Country and a children’s book entitled Who Are Your People? Sellers pays homage to the working-class values that encouraged him to “dream with his eyes wide open.”
###
About Benedict College (www.benedict.edu)
Founded in 1870 by a woman, Bathsheba A. Benedict, Benedict College is a private co-educational liberal arts institution offering 29 competitive baccalaureate degree programs and two master’s degree programs. The Midlands HBCU welcomes students from several counties in South Carolina, states across America, and countries around the world. The College also has a diverse faculty deeply engaged in teaching, research, and service.
Benedict College has been highly regarded and exceptionally ranked for its programs by several academic and traditional publications. Benedict College is the recipient of the 2024 UNCF Institutional Excellence Award given by UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building Program in celebration of an HBCU that achieved next-level performance. Benedict was also named HBCU of the Year by HBCU Digest and was listed among the top half of ranked HBCUs in the 2022 edition of Best Colleges by US News and World Report.
Benedict College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award baccalaureate and master’s degrees. Five of the College’s degree programs hold national accreditation: Social Work Program, Environmental Health Science Program, Environmental Engineering, Studio Art, and the Tyrone Adam Burroughs School of Business and Entrepreneurship.
