Join the Center for a conversation with Daughters of the Movement, Aisha Withers Mitchell and Lisa S. McNair. The conversation will explore their experiences growing up in the Civil Rights Movement, how their families inspired them through their work and the continuing work they do today. A light reception will proceed the conversation. Sponsored by Gallagher.

Panelists/Daughters

Aisha Withers Mitchell, a Southern University A&M alumni and past employee of Amazon, is currently the  Director of Human Resources for the Withers Collection Gallery and Museum. Aisha is a Los Angeles native and granddaughter of famed photographer Dr. Ernest C. Withers.

Although raised in Los Angeles, Aisha spent her summers working alongside her grandfather in the studio and accompanied him on numerous jobs. In those moments with her grandparents, Aisha learned the importance of the images her grandfather captured throughout defining moments of history.

These moments have sparked a passion within her family to preserve their legacy and educate generations through Dr. Ernest C. Withers’s lens. As Dr. Withers always stated,” Pictures Tell the Story.”

Lisa S. McNair is the oldest living sister of Denise McNair, one of the four girls killed in the infamous 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Denise was an only child at the time of her death. Almost exactly one year from the day she was murdered, Lisa was born. 

Today, Lisa is a professional photographer with her own business, Posh Photographers, conducts Anti-Racism Workshops, and is a national public speaker. Lisa shares the story of Denise’s life, her heinous murder, and how it affected her parents and the city of Birmingham. She also speaks on racial reconciliation, urging audiences to remember that we have more commonalities than differences.   

Lisa hopes that we will never forget the lessons learned nor the lives lost during the Civil Rights Movement, so we do not repeat the horrible evilness of that time.