Trailblazer Karen Parker '65 to deliver 2020 Carson Lecture, speak with Dean Susan King

UNC Hussman alumna and Carolina trailblazer Karen Parker '65 will deliver the 2020 Eve Marie Carson Lecture and join Hussman Dean Susan King for a conversation on December 2nd. Parker is the first African American woman undergraduate to attend UNC-Chapel Hill. She will speak about trailblazing a path as a student at Carolina during the civil rights movement and how those experiences shaped and prepared her for an illustrious career in journalism that took her to leading newsrooms across the country. A Q&A moderated by King will follow. The annual Eve Carson Lecture is presented by the Carolina Women’s Leadership Council in partnership with the Will Froelich Honors Fellows. It will take place Wednesday, December 2, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Register for the lecture here. 

Karen Parker was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, and grew up in Winston Salem. She transferred to UNC-Chapel Hill in 1963, where she found both new opportunities and familiar challenges and prejudice (read more of her account here). Parker was a leader in the civil rights movement on campus, participating in sit-ins, marches and protests, and was arrested and jailed twice. She also continued to pursue her journalism degree, served as the editor of the UNC Journalist and was inducted into the Order of the Valkyries. Her diary containing accounts of the 1963-64 Civil Rights Movement in Chapel Hill and her experiences on campus is held in the Southern Historical Collection at Wilson Library.

Graduating in 1965 with a bachelor's degree in journalism, Parker became the first African-American woman to earn an undergraduate degree from the University. “Graduating from UNC’s journalism school definitely changed my life for the better,” Parker said in 2019.

After graduation, Parker worked as a copy editor with several major newspapers. She worked for 15 years for the Los Angeles Times, where she became Sunday News Editor. Her other newspaper experience includes the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Winston-Salem Journal, from which she retired in 2010. She was inducted into the NC Media & Journalism Hall of Fame in 2012.

In 2016, the University announced it would name grants and fellowships to honor those who became important “firsts” in the University’s history. Parker is among those who have been honored.

About the Eve Marie Carson Lecture Series:

Former student body president Eve Marie Carson started the UNC Student Government Distinguished Speakers Series in 2007. Eve strongly believed in Carolina students, saying, “It’s us — the student body — who make UNC what it is.” She built a platform for a student-run lecture series that has strengthened the values of the student body and better equipped students to serve their communities.

The Distinguished Speakers Series was renamed the Eve Marie Carson Lecture Series in honor of Carson’s legacy, and the Carolina Women’s Leadership Council became the presenting sponsor of the series in 2010. As members of the Carolina community, CWLC aspires to uphold the values set forth for speakers in the series: a strong ability to lead ourselves and others, a commitment to public service, and a proven ability to enact real, positive change in a community.

Click here to register for the lecture.