Four theologians who experienced the American Civil Rights Movement firsthand will bring their stories and perspectives to MSU for Black History Month, which starts Thursday.

The speakers will come to campus as part of the Visiting Minority Lecture Series titled “Slavery to Freedom: An American Odyssey.” The series is presented by MSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine and is a joint effort by the university and the state of Michigan to increase MSU’s minority faculty pool without hiring lecturers full-time.

“This allows us to tap our resources nationwide to bring speakers to campus and make them more accessible to students and faculty,” said Sandy Kilbourn, the college’s executive director for external programs.

Kicking off the series will be the Rev. Charles G. Adams, pastor of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit. Adams will speak on “Black Economic Development/Empowerment” at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Kellogg Center.

Several university departments are co-sponsoring the event, including the Office of Minority Student Affairs.

Rodney Patterson, director for Minority Student Affairs, said the speakers will bring expertise and prestige to MSU’s Black History Month observance.

“Their presence on campus is pretty significant,” he said. “I don’t know of anything of this nature happening across the country, so this exposes us in a very unique way. Most mainstream institutions will not experience such a unique and tremendous learning opportunity.”

And Kilbourn agrees.

“I think these speakers represent among the best of leadership in the black community nationwide,” she said.

Members of the MSU community should make an effort to attend the lectures, Kilbourn said.

“I think the topics they will be speaking about have real relevance to a university population, and I would like to believe everyone would find these issues of importance on this campus,” she said.

All lectures are free of charge. For more information, call 432-4979.