Fentress is guest speaker at Freedom Trail lunch

Gwendolyn Duncan, President of the 40th ACCORD, Inc., told local Historic City News reporters that Dr. Kathryn Fentress will appear as a guest speaker at the 4th Annual ACCORD Northrop Grumman Freedom Trail Luncheon on July 2, 2010.

The annual Luncheon, which will be held at the Casa Monica Hotel, is a fundraiser which supports the organizational efforts to maintain the ACCORD Freedom Trail and its ongoing projects.

When Fentress was a 19 year-old pre-med student at Duke University in June, 1964, she was arrested on the steps of the Monson Motor Lodge and held in the St. Johns County Jail with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Fentress did her graduate work in clinical psychology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. She graduated with her Ph.D. in 1971 with an emphasis in Humanistic Psychology.

In 1994 Fentress relocated to Bellingham, WA to be near the sea and to put down roots. Almost immediately she was invited to work with people of the Lummi, Upper Skagit, and Swinomish Tribes. Through this work she developed a specialty in healing trauma: especially sexual trauma, childhood abuse, and trauma from domestic violence.

Fentress now serves as a Native American specialist to other counselors and case managers working with Native children. She is a clinical supervisor for Evergreen AIDS Foundation, and supervises graduate students and professionals in the community. She continues to bring a transpersonal perspective to all her work and is deeply committed to her own spiritual unfolding.

The organization will honor the heroes of the civil rights movement; marking the 46th anniversary of the signing of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. The second Dr. Robert B. Hayling Award of Valor will be presented by Florida State Senator Tony Hill to a deserving demonstrator who participated in the movement in St. Augustine.

The annual event aligns with the mission of ACCORD — to remember, recognize, and honor individuals who risked their lives to attain civil rights for all and celebrating St. Augustine’s pivotal role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The keynote speaker will be Congressman John Lewis, an early Freedom Rider, Chairman of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Georgia’s 5th Congressional District representative since 1987.

Tickets for the luncheon are $45 until June 15th, then $50 per person. VIP tickets are $60. To purchase tickets, contact Audrey Willis (904) 829-3996 or Elizabeth Duncan (904) 347-1382.

The public is invited to attend the dedication of a Freedom Trail Marker to be unveiled at the St. Johns County Jail Annex at 9:15 a.m. that day.

Photo credits: © 2010 Historic City News contributed photograph