MSU
Tom Hayden has been beaten, jailed and kicked out of towns across the southern United States.
Hayden, a civil rights activist, former legislator and author, spoke Thursday at the Kellogg Center about his time as a freedom rider in Mississippi and Albany, Ga.
He was the final speaker in the third annual visiting faculty series sponsored by the College of Osteopathic Medicine.
"There are not many of these speakers that I say share my criminal background," College of Osteopathic Medicine Professor William Anderson said during his introduction of Hayden.
As an activist, Hayden dedicated much of his time to fighting racial, ethnic and gender bias and discrimination.
"It's in his DNA to fight for civil rights and justice," Anderson said.
Gregory Jones, a 1980 MSU graduate, said Hayden's lecture gives him a chance to see the activist he so often heard about.
"I remember he was a big activist in the '60s and '70s," he said.