Terrence Roberts, one of the first black students to study at a previously all-white school, will speak to Ball State University students about improving human relations.
Tatum Rucker, graduate assistant for the Multicultural Center, said Roberts' lecture was part of a week of events honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement.
The lecture will be 7 p.m. in Pruis Hall, she said.
Roberts was one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of young Black Americans who were influential in the Civil Rights Movement.
Derick Virgil, director of the Multicultural Center, said the group, which consisted of high school students in their early teens, were the first black students to enter into a previously all-white school system in Little Rock, Ark., he said.
People who opposed integration threatened and intimidated the students.
"It was at a time in the South when a lot of parents still opposed desegregation," he said. "But by law, all students had to be allowed equal education."
Because Little Rock High School was closed in order to prevent further integration, Roberts moved to Los Angeles after his junior year, Virgil said.
Roberts graduated from California State University at Los Angeles and UCLA, he said.
He also received a doctorate in psychology from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, and owns a private psychology practice, Virgil said.
Roberts is the co-chairman of the Master's in Psychology Program at Antioch University, Virgil said.
Virgil said Roberts continued to improve human relations and was the official integration consultant for the Little Rock School District.
Roberts received the Congressional Gold Medal, America's highest civilian award, in 1999 for his role in the Civil Rights Movement, Rucker said.
He also received the Spingarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1958, Rucker said.
In his presentation, Roberts will talk about the lessons he learned during his time in the Little Rock school system, and how other schools can work to promote equality and improve human relations, Virgil said.
"[Roberts] is a living piece of history," he said. "He can speak from a primary participant's perspective and from a scholar's standpoint on civil rights issues."
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