Award-winning Callie Crossley honored with the Coleman Award -- Nov. 14, 2012

Oct. 18, 2012 - PRLog -- Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University presents Callie Crossley with the 2012 George W. Coleman Award. With Master of Ceremonies Janet Wu. Wednesday, November 14, 8-9 am breakfast celebration (registration begins at 7:30 am). Tickets: $75-$100. The Charles Hotel, Kennedy Room, One Bennett St., Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA 02138. Wheelchair accessible and conveniently located near the Harvard Square MBTA Station. For reservations and more information, call the Ford Hall Forum at 617-557-2007 or visit www.fordhallforum.org.

Ford Hall Forum honors Callie Crossley with their 2012 George W. Coleman Award for her exceptional decade-long service as a member of the Board of Directors. Crossley has enriched and deepened the Forum’s programs. She has carried on the mission of the Forum by using her considerable skills to ensure that the Forum presents intelligent programs of depth and distinction. Crossley has lent her journalistic expertise and talents in moderating discussions with such luminaries as: NPR’s Cokie Roberts, Nina Totenberg and Linda Wertheimer; PBS's Gwen Ifill; and Congressman Barney Frank.

Callie Crossley is an award-winning reporter, commentator and radio talk host. She was nominated for an Oscar for her work on "Eyes On the Prize," the landmark TV documentary series about the history of the American Civil Rights movement. www.calliecrossley.com

Master of Ceremonies Janet Wu is a multi-media journalist, who is currently news anchor and reporter for Boston’s WCVB-TV Channel 5. www.janetwu.com

All proceeds from the breakfast will benefit the Ford Hall Forum (www.fordhallforum.org), the nation’s oldest continuously operating free public lecture series. The Ford Hall Forum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and contributions to attend the breakfast are tax deductible with the exception of a portion towards the cost of the meal. Ford Hall Forum would like to acknowledge the following underwriters for their generous support for this award: Ben Alper, Monica Collins, Patrick Dowdall, Paul Duffy, Andy Macomber, Glenda Manzi, Michael Miller, Helen Rees, David Shaw, and WGBH.

Further background information on George W. Coleman:

Ford Hall Forum was founded in February 1908 by George W. Coleman, a Boston businessman and then leader of the Boston Baptist Social Union. The first public lectures were held in the Union's meeting place, the Ford Building on Beacon Hill, from where the Forum's name originates. The Forum was established as a free speech institution that does not endorse the view of any of its speakers, occasionally giving the stage to speakers who other institutions would, or could, not. Ousted by the Boston Baptist Social Union for fear of being associated with radicalism, the Ford Hall Forum began its own separate enterprise in 1929.

About Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University: "Provoking Thought: Listen. Learn. Engage”

Ford Hall Forum is the nation's oldest free public lecture series, providing an open venue for sharing opinions and discussing controversial points of view. It advances the First Amendment through freedom of expression, encouraging attendees to engage directly with speakers. Ford Hall Forum discussions illuminate the key issues facing our society by bringing to its podium knowledgeable and thought-provoking orators from a broad range of perspectives. These experts participate for free, and in settings that promote a culture of involvement in a non-partisan environment.

The Forum began in 1908 as a series of Sunday evening public meetings held at the Ford Hall, which once stood on Beacon Hill in Boston. While the original building no longer exists, the public conversations have continued throughout the Boston area with the generous support from state agencies, foundations, corporations, academic institutions, and individuals. In its 104th year of programming, the Forum continues to build upon its partnership with Suffolk University. Suffolk is now housing the Forum's administrative offices just a block away from where the original Ford Hall once stood.

Ford Hall Forum programs are made possible through the generous contributions from individual members as well as corporations and foundations, including American International Group (AIG), AMES Hotel, Broadway Video, The Fred & Marty Corneel Fund, Gray Media, Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council, Helen Rees Literary Agency, Iron Mountain, Jackson & Company, Katz Nannis + Solomon, The Lowell Institute, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Penny Pimentel, The Pfizer Foundation, Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation, Prince Lobel & Tye, Saturday Night Live, Suffolk University, True North,  and WBUR 90.9 FM.

For more information, call Ford Hall Forum at 617-557-2007 or visit www.fordhallforum.org. Information about Suffolk University’s partnership with Ford Hall Forum can be obtained by contacting Mariellen Norris, (617) 573-8450, mnorris@suffolk.edu.