Elizabeth Liz Overton Colton, Ph.D.
- Title
- Elizabeth Liz Overton Colton, Ph.D. (Abstract)
- Interviewer
- Lizzy Ray
- Date
- October 15, 2023
- Location of the Interview
- Zoom
- Length
- 1 hour, 22 minutes, 37 seconds
- Abstract
-
Liz Colton was born in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1945, but spent her childhood in Asheville, North Carolina. She got her B.A. at Randolph-Macon Women’s College, now Randolph College, and has two Masters degrees from Vanderbilt University, in English Literature and Sociology-Anthropology. She received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology, at the University of London School of Economics and Political Science. As a child, her community consisted of Trinity Episcopal Church in Asheville, her school friends, and her family. When she was growing up, school integration was occurring all over the country, but slowly in the south. She recalls this being a very inspirational time that fueled her life-long ambition of being a civil advocate.
Liz spent a lifetime working in civil rights, especially taking part in the Civil Rights Movement from a young age—the 1950s in elementary school and throughout high school and college, even being a part of ASCORE, Asheville Student Committee on Racial Equality. She recalls working in the Peace Corps in Africa when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and the ripple effect across the world. Colton has worked for the United Nations, was an international/national/local journalist in the news media, and served as press secretary for Rev. Jesse Jackson in 1988 U.S. Presidential primary. She was a diplomat with the U.S. Foreign Service, professor for UNITAR, and currently Diplomat and Journalist in Residence at Warren Wilson College.
Elizabeth Colton has spent her life helping the people around the world and continues to do so to this day. She is still fighting for a better future for minorities and continues to educate the future generations on how to fight for their own rights and how to fight for each others’ rights. From this perspective, she opines on the Black Lives Matter movement.
