April 21, 2003

Noted Actress and Educator to be Featured at Calloway Breakfast

Tonea Stewart

An award-winning actress will offer the keynote address at an annual Saint Louis University function aimed to raise scholarship funds.

Actress Tonea Stewart, who has starred in movies including "A Time to Kill," and had a recurring role in the television series "In the Heat of the Night," will be the featured speaker at the Calloway Prayer Breakfast at Saint Louis University Saturday, April 26. The event begins at 9 a.m. in the lower level of Saint Francis Xavier College Church, 3638 Lindell Blvd.

In addition to her movie and television acting career, Stewart also is a tenured professor and director of the theatre arts program at Alabama State University. Her film career includes parts in the Academy Award-nominated "Mississippi Burning" and "Living Large." On television, she co-starred in a movie about the life of civil rights heroine Rosa Parks, among many other roles. Stewart also has appeared on stage, and created the original "Profiles of Black Women."

The Calloway Prayer Breakfast raises money for the Calloway Scholarships for deserving African-American students. The scholarship honors the accomplishments of Ernest A. Calloway Jr., who served as an associate professor of urban affairs at SLU for 11 years. He also was president of the St. Louis NAACP and Negro Labor Council.

The son of an Appalachian coal minor, Calloway worked to obtain a scholarship from Oxford University. He demonstrated a life-long concern for the welfare of humanity as a conscientious objector to Jim Crow Laws in the U.S. Army, a union organizer, journalist, civil rights activist and social researcher.

KSDK-TV reporter and anchor Sharon Stevens will be the host for the event. It is sponsored by the Saint Louis University Black Alumni Association and is open to the public.

Tickets are still available for $25 and can be purchased by calling Megan Montgomery at (314) 977-2250. All proceeds benefit the Calloway Scholarships.

Related Links:

• How can I get involved with the Black Alumni Association?

• Learn more about SLU alumni relations.