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Wichita Library Launches Series Centering On Race, Ethnicity

The Wichita Public Library is hosting a series of programs this year looking at issues of race and ethnicity, particularly in relation to law enforcement. 

The first presentation in the "Candid Conversations" series will be from Dr. Gretchen Eick, a history professor at Friends University. Eick is the author of Dissent in Wichita, a book focusing on race relations and the modern civil rights movement, particularly Wichita's Dockum Sit-In, one of the first anti-segregation demonstrations of its kind in the country.

In the coming months, the series will touch on racial profiling, systemic inequity and matters of voting rights in relation to race. Presenters include Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay and Micah Kubik, the executive director of the ACLU of Kansas. 

Eick says she hopes the programs will attract people from all different backgrounds.

"If people who are like, 'I don't know what I think about this' would come to some of these and look at racism and and other kinds of discrimination and how we understand that in today's world, I think that can bring people closer together," Eick says.

The series runs through April and is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Kansas Humanities Council.

Eick's presentation is from 1:30-2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at the Central Library in Wichita. More information about the Candid Conversations series can be found here.

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Follow Abigail Beckman on Twitter @AbigailKMUW.

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