Civil rights leader the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery and presidential candidate Dennis J. Kucinich are among the dignitaries scheduled to visit Orangeburg today.

The Student Government Association of Claflin University will serve as host to the South Carolina Student Political Empowerment Forum from 2 to 3 p.m. Friday in the W.V. Middleton Fine Arts Center.

Their guests will include SGA presidents of majority and historically black colleges and universities across South Carolina as well as U.S. Reps. Gregory W. Meeks and Alcee L. Hastings, Kucinich and Lowery.

Preceding the event, there will be a viewing of works by photographer Cecil Williams titled, "Inter-Generational Connections," in the Arthur Rose Museum beginning at 12:30 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

Information is available from Helene Carter in the public information office at 803-535-5351 or hcarter@claflin.edu; the Claflin SGA office at 803-535-5450; and the Rev. Jerome McCray, associate vice president for student development, at 803-535-5651.

And on Saturday ...

A town hall meeting to discuss issues of concern to the black community will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday at Williams Chapel AME Church, 1198 Glover St.

The sponsor of the event is the Unity '04 Civic Engagement and Voter Empowerment Campaign, a non-partisan initiative involving more than 100 influential black organizations and spearheaded by the National Coalition of Black Civic Participation.

The grassroots voter mobilization effort seeks to increase black voter turnout for the Democratic Party presidential primary in South Carolina this Tuesday.

Participants will include Lowery, journalist George Curry, union organizer Clayola Brown and NCBCP Executive Director Melanie L. Campbell.

Lowery

The NAACP has called him "the dean of the civil rights movement." Ebony magazine has named him one of the nation's 15 greatest black preachers.

Lowery was a co-founder, with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He served as president and chief executive officer of the SCLC from 1977 to 1998.

He organized and led a 2,700-mile pilgrimage through five states and 70 cities in 1982 that led to extensions and strengthening of the Voting Rights Act.

His experiences include teaching in a school and a seminary; editing a newspaper; fighting U.S. business investment in South Africa during apartheid; conducting workshops for former Ku Klux Klan members; and operating a gun buy-back program.

Kucinich

He became mayor of his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, at 31, the youngest person ever elected to lead a major American city. He lost his re-election bid, but 15 years later, won election to the Ohio Senate.

Kucinich chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus and has promoted a national health care system, sought increased unemployment benefits, fought for railroad safety measures, championed clean air and water and opposed nuclear energy.

He is a vegan, or strict vegetarian. He supports nuclear disarmament and has proposed the creation of a Department of Peace. He is the 2003 recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award

His long-shot presidential bid has the endorsement of dozens of artists, advocates, authors and activists including Willie Nelson, Ed Asner, Ben Cohen, Danny Glover, Pete Seeger and Studs Terkel.

Meeks

After growing up in New York public housing, he graduated from Adelphi University and earned a law degree from Howard University. He has been an assistant district attorney, special narcotics prosecutor, investigator of public officials and organized crime and supervising judge for the New York State Workers Compensation System. In Congress he has advocated for consumers, from automobile buyers to frequent flyers and home buyers.

Hastings

Born in Altamonte Springs, he attended Florida's public schools and graduated from Fisk University in 1958. Having been accepted to Meharry Medical School, he decided instead to attend Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, where he earned a law degree. Known to most as "Judge," Alcee Hastings has distinguished himself as an attorney, civil rights activist and judge.

Curry

Curry is editor-in-chief of BlackPressUSA.com and the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service, which syndicates his weekly column to more than 200 African-American newspapers with a combined readership of 15 million.

The National Association of Black Journalists named Curry its 2003 Journalist of the Year. He is on the NABJ's list of Most Influential Black Journalists of the 20th Century. The University of Missouri's School of Journalism presented Curry with its highest honor.

He has worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and Emerge: Black America's Newsmagazine.

Brown

Brown is executive vice president of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees. She visited Orangeburg last September while participating in the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, which made a stop at South Carolina State University.

At that occasion, she said "the very few that are willing to stand up and speak up ... ensure that the rights of everyone will continue."

T&D Staff Writer Lee Hendren can be reached by e-mail at lhendren@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5552.

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