WASHINGTON - September 28 - Paul Quinn College in Dallas will be the third stop in a seven-state tour of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) aimed at promoting student involvement in civil and human rights issues as well as voter registration and turnout.

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) will visit Paul Quinn Friday, Oct. 1. NCADP launched its tour to focus attention on the U.S. Supreme Court case Roper vs. Simmons, which challenges the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty. Arguments will be heard Oct. 13.

A forum examining the juvenile death penalty will be held noon to 2 p.m. Friday in Paul Quinn's Science Auditorium. Participating in the forum will be Brian Roberts, former executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and Walter Long, an Austin attorney and expert on the juvenile death penalty in the United States. Long provided legal counsel to Napolean Beazley, executed in 2002, and currently represents Nanon Williams, a juvenile offender on Texas death row.

"Human rights and the death penalty are issues that spark the interest of today's generation of black college students," said Jotaka Eaddy, NCADP's lead organizer. "These students will help determine the outcome of the November elections in the short term and the death penalty over the longer haul. It is time for our voices to be heard and it is time for our votes to be counted."

The HBCU tour, which will run from Labor Day weekend through Thanksgiving, will visit HBCUs during classic football games and homecoming events and will provide a fun and educational mix of hip-hop culture, student activism and education. In addition to Dallas, tour venues include Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana and Washington, D.C.

NCADP has joined with Be. Magazine in organizing the tour. Be. Magazine is distributed to 60,000 students at historically black colleges and universities, and is written and produced by HBCU students.

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