Library exhibit focuses on women in civil rights

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Former Atlanta Hawks guard Mike Glenn recently opened his exhibit “Expanding Civil Rights: With a Focus on Women of the Movement” at the Decatur library through Jan. 24 during regular library hours. The opening reception is 6:30-7:30 p.m. today at the library, 215 Sycamore Street, Decatur. Scheduled speakers are Decatur Mayor Patti Garrett and longtime activist Elizabeth Wilson, Decatur’s only black mayor.

During a recent interview Glenn said the display includes over 100 framed pieces of artwork, photographs, articles and first-edition books. The earliest item is an original article on the 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court case. There’s also emphasis on the 50th anniversary of Shirley Chisholm becoming the first black woman elected to Congress.

“What we’re trying to show,” Glenn said, “is that the movement doesn’t just fall into the (conventional) 1955-68 period. It goes back much further and as Andrew Young once told me, ‘We’re still in it.’ Meantime women have been critical … starting with Dred Scott’s wife Harriett, who pushed him to seek his freedom.”

Glenn averaged 7.6 points per game in the NBA from 1977-87, including 1981-85 with the Hawks. He’s currently an analyst for the Hawks pregame and postgame shows. He has run the Mike Glenn Camp for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing since 1980, the nation’s first basketball camp for deaf athletes. He’s authored four biographies of African-Americans and works for Atlanta Public Schools as an adult education instructor teaching math, science, social studies, reading and writing (both his parents were teachers).