From the Montgomery bus boycott to the lunch counter sit-ins to the Freedom Rides, best-selling author Lynne Olson puts a human face on civil rights struggle - and shows that the face was often female. In this free, public McConnell Center talk, Olson will discuss a few of these little-known heroines, exploring the relationship between men and women and blacks and whites over 140 years.

Olson is a national bestselling author or co-author of six books. She spent 7 years with the Associated Press, working in New York, Moscow and Washington D.C. She covered national politics and the White House with the Baltimore Sun. She later taught journalism at American University.

This event marks the eighth of nine events in the McConnell Center’s “Debating America” lecture series.

Olson will deliver another talk at the McConnell Center on her most recent book, “Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941.” Her second talk is scheduled from 6-7:30 p.m., April 8, in Ekstrom Library’s Chao Auditorium.