Celebration of Black History Month - SUSLA Spring Convocation welcomes, Reverend Dr. Vashti Murphy McKenzie

MEDIA RELEASE

February 14, 2011

 

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Bill “Sharp” Strother

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Celebration of Black History Month-SUSLA Spring Convocation welcomes, Reverend Dr. Vashti Murphy McKenzie

Southern University at Shreveport Chancellor Dr. Ray L. Belton, the administration, faculty, staff and students are pleased to welcome Reverend Dr. Vashti Murphy McKenzie as our Spring Convocation guest speaker to celebrate Black History Month, Wednesday, February 16th, 2011, 10am in the Health and Physical Education Complex. Reverend Dr. Vashti McKenzie is a woman of firsts. She was the first woman to pastor at Payne Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland. On July 11, 2000, the AME Church elected her its first female bishop in its 213-year history. The AME Church will never be the same.

May 30, 1947, Dr. McKenzie was born into the well-know Murphy clan of Baltimore, an established family with a history in publishing, politics, and the social advancement of the Negro. Her great grandfather John H. Murphy started the Afro-American Newspaper in 1892; her grandfather Carl H. Murphy succeeded his father as publisher and editor, and her grandmother Vashti Turly Murphy was a founding member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, a Christian African-American college sorority that currently has a national membership of more than 250,000.

The event is sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs led by Dr. Sharon Green-Vice Chancellor and Dr. Melva Turner-Assistant Vice Chancellor.