Yesterday famed television journalist Spencer Christian, who spent much of his career working for ABC’s Good Morning America, spoke to a packed Ruth Corkin Theatre about growing up in the segregated south.

“Generally, in the 1950s and into the mid-60s, when you talked about matters of race, you were talking about black and white. There were signs that told me everyday of my life, until I was 2o or 21 years old, where I could and could not go,” Christian said. “The life that I lived wasn’t something from a 100 years ago or from the time of the Civil War—something from just a few decades ago. There are millions of people in our society living today who are in the 50s and in their 60s who experienced exactly what I’m describing to you.”

Christian is the father of Director of Diversity Jessica Christian, who provided the introduction. “He overcame the adversity of fierce discrimination, studied hard and became a successful journalist and television personality,” she said.

Christian also visited David Cutler’s journalism class, where he spoke about his career and the current state of media [click here for coverage].