FCA President to Speak at USAO for Martin Luther King Day
As part of Monday’s Martin Luther King Day festivities, Rev. Carey Casey, president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Foundation and an original character in the movie Remember the Titans, will speak at 7 p.m. in the University of Science and Arts’ Davis Hall Theater.
Admission is free to hear the well-known motivational speaker, lecturer, pastor and coalition builder who works to bring about positive change in the areas of religion, civil rights history and racial reconciliation.
Spearheading the effort to bring Casey to campus for Martin Luther King Day was the African-American Student Association along with a campus committee made up of Student Services Director David Mayes, Vice President for Administrative Affairs Terry Winn and Co-Project Manager of Lawson Court Sylvia Smith.
“This is the first time Martin Luther King Day has been observed on campus since I came here in 2002,” African-American Student Association President Crystal Craig said. “We wanted to bring community involvement in for this event, and I think this can be very progressive for our campus and for our organization.”
Casey, a former chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys and at the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, has partnered with numerous associations and national leaders in a broad-based effort to reform society. He has worked with Secretary of State Colin Powell, America’s Promise and Barry R. McCaffrey, former director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Receiving a degree in religion in 1979 from the University of North Carolina, where he helped the Tar Heels to the 1977 Atlantic Coast Conference championship as a running back and wide receiver, Casey went on to attend Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and the Virginia Union University School of Theology.
He entered the pulpit full-time at Lawndale Community Church in North Lawndale, Ill. He faithfully pastored within the 15th poorest community in the country helping to empower the community with health care, housing, education and economic growth. The church on the west side of Chicago is one of former President George Bush’s “Points of Light” and is a living example of how a tough, inner-city neighborhood can be redeemed.