Dr. John M. Perkins, who was active in the civil rights movement and advocates Christian community development as well as racial reconciliation, will discuss poverty during a Bluffton University Forum on Tuesday, Jan. 18.

Perkins' address, "Responding to Poverty," is free and open to the public, beginning at 11 a.m. in Yoder Recital Hall. It is part of Bluffton's observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Perkins grew up in poverty as a sharecropper's son in New Hebron, Miss. After his older brother's murder at the hands of a town marshal, he fled to California at age 17, vowing never to return. He did, to Mendenhall, Miss., to share the gospel after his conversion to Christianity in 1960, but his outspokenness and leadership in civil rights demonstrations resulted in repeated harassment, beatings and imprisonment.

In Mendenhall, Perkins and his wife, Vera Mae, founded Voice of Calvary Ministries, which started not only a church but also a health center, leadership development program, thrift store, low-income housing development and training center. The ministry also initiated development projects in neighboring towns.

In 1982, the Perkins family moved back to California, where Perkins and his wife founded Harambee Christian Family Center in Pasadena. The following year, joined by a few friends and other supporters, they established the John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation & Development Inc. Though they eventually returned to Mississippi, Harambee continues to offer numerous programs, including after-school tutoring, Bible clubs, an award-winning technology center and summer day camp, youth internship and college scholarship programs.