Bending Toward Justice: Gandhi’s Influence on the Civil Rights Movement

In 1959, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to India to pay homage to his hero, Mahatma Gandhi, who King referred to as “the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change.” Minneapolis-based poet, speaker, and educator Joe Davis will set the stage with an inspiring artist introduction. Then, Rose Brewer (social activist, University of Minnesota Twin Cities) and Davu Underwood Seru (musician, Givens Collection of African American Literature) will join Davis for a rich conversation, moderated by Dwight K. Lewis Jr. (UMN), about how these two leaders shaped our thinking around civil disobedience and civic engagement, and the role of art in the ongoing struggle for freedom.

The University of Minnesota Spotlight Series is a collaborative partnership between the Institute for Advanced Study and Northrop to present conversations, performances, and exhibits around timely topics of interest throughout the academic year. The 2024-25 series will focus on cosmic justice and include discussions about dharma, identity, and the role community plays in imagining a just society.

About the Presenters

Rose M. Brewer, PhD, is a Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor and past chair of the Department of African American & African Studies at the UMN. She holds affiliate appointments in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies and Sociology. A social activist and scholar, Brewer publishes extensively on Black feminism, political economy, social movements, race, class, gender, and social change. She is co-author of the award-winning The Color of Wealth. Most recently, she co-edited Rod Bush: Lessons From a Radical Black Scholar on Liberation, Love, and Justice. Her work includes more than 80 essays, articles, and refereed publications. Among numerous awards for her distinguished teaching and scholarship, she has received the American Sociological Association’s Distinguished Teaching award, a Josie R. Johnson Social Justice Award recipient, and most recently, the Common Ground Consortium 2021 Intellectual Excellence Award. She is the 2025 President of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, one of the leading sociological associations in the United States. Dr. Brewer works for social transformation locally, nationally, and internationally.

Joe Davis is an award-winning spoken word artist and bestselling author who uses poetry to power possibility. He is the founder and director of Finding Your Freedom Practice, teaching holistic health and wellness practices through spoken word, writing, music, theater, and dance. Joe holds a master of arts degree in Theology of the Arts and also heads a multimedia production company, a soul funk band, and a racial justice education program. His work has been featured on BET, CNN, and VH1. Based in Minneapolis, he tours internationally to join schools, faith spaces, nonprofits, and businesses to practice envisioning and embodying a world of collective liberation and human flourishing.

Davu Underwood Seru is an improvising musician, composer, and scholar known primarily for his work on drums. For the past 20+ years he has worked with musicians such as Milo Fine, George Cartwright, Nirmala Rajasekar, Douglas R. Ewart, Michelle Kinney, Dean Magraw, Paul Metzger, Evan Parker, Didier Petit, Babatunde Lea, Nathan Hanson, Mankwe Ndosi, Rafael Toral, David Boykin, Donald Washington, Guillame Seguron, Tony Hymas, David Boykin, Chris Bates, Catherine Delaunay, and Nicole Mitchell Gantt. He is the co-author, with Charles Chamblis, of the book Sights, Sounds, Soul: The Twin Cities Through the Lens of Charles Chamblis (Minnesota Historical Society Press 2007). Davu is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and is Curator of the Givens Collection of African American Literature at UMN.

Moderator
Dwight K. Lewis Jr., PhD, is an assistant professor in the department of philosophy, the Stephen Setterberg Faculty Fellow in Philosophy, and a co-founder/co-director of the Center for Canon Expansion and Change at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. His research interrogates philosophy through a historical lens; he focuses on the history of philosophy, Africana philosophy, the philosophical canon, and society at large. He attempts to live his life as James Baldwin says, “larger, freer, and more loving,” for himself and in relation to his community, both locally and globally. Because of this, Professor Lewis works to bridge the gap between academia and the public sphere, which grounds his academic research. This is seen in his in-depth interview for Martin Luther King Jr. Day with News13 in Orlando and his podcast Larger, Freer, More Loving with Matt LaVine.

UMN Conversations at Northrop is a collection of lectures, panel discussions, and other conversations focused on important and timely issues presented in collaboration among numerous University of Minnesota departments and held at Northrop.