Harvard Club of Georgia

Race Discussion Group Sunday Supper - Feb.

with guest: Pat Byrd, Founder and Chair, Fair Districts GA

DETAILS:

Sunday Suppers are casual gatherings where new ideas and stimulating conversation are the main fare at interesting restaurants. The guest speaker leads an informal discussion based on their work or topic of interest. Reservations are open to current Harvard Club of Georgia members and their guests on a first-come, first-served basis. Attendance is limited to 12 people so that the conversation is more personal and happens around the dinner table. Purchasing a $15.00 ticket reserves your seat at the table and contributes towards the guest speaker's meal. Each attendee orders their own meal and is responsible for his/her check.

COST: $15.00 reservation

RSVP: Open to first twelve HCG members (plus one guest)

SPEAKER: Pat Byrd, Founder and Chair, Fair Districts GA

Pat Byrd was born in 1943 in Mobile, Alabama, and grew up in a small town nearby that was deeply embedded in the overt racist order of the times.  She attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery 1961-1965…years that included the March from Selma to Montgomery, those dangerous years that are so vividly recalled in the exhibits at the Civil Rights Museum here in Atlanta.  She got her MA in English literature at Northwestern University and PhD in English linguistics from the University of Florida.  She taught at the University of Florida and Georgia State University, where she was the founding chair of the Department of Applied Linguistics/ESL.  Upon retirement in 2010, she intended to devote her time to gardening, baking bread, and travel.  Then came the 2016 election. In 2017, with a small group of other activists from the Indivisible movement, she helped to organize Fair Districts GA, a nonpartisan grassroots nonprofit dedicated to reform of the redistricting system in Georgia to prevent both racial and partisan gerrymandering.