Stephanie Coffin recalls the blistering social movements of the 1960s and early ’70s as though they happened only last week.

In 1968, Coffin, her husband Tom and a couple dozen other brazen young activists launched The Great Speckled Bird, a highly provocative underground newspaper in Atlanta.

“It was a pretty exciting time,” Coffin, a former Georgia Perimeter College instructor, remembers.

Speckled Bird writers like the Coffins penned inflammatory articles that addressed anti-war sentiments, as well as civil rights, women’s and gay equality issues and labor practices—all from a decidedly leftist point of view.

The nationally recognized newspaper published its last issue in 1976, but relics of it will visit Georgia Perimeter as part of the college’s 1960s Symposium this month.

The Great Speckled Bird exhibit opens at GPC’s Decatur Campus in Building F, Room 2100, on Monday, Feb. 9. The same day, a panel discussion focusing on an overview of the newspaper will take place from 11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Coffin calls it an excellent opportunity for staff and students to connect with the past. 

“It’ll be very interesting for them to see … the images of the struggles in the late ’60s and early ’70s,” she says.

The exhibit includes eight-foot-long panels of newspaper articles and supersized blowups of demonstration pictures and published series.

In addition to the exhibit and opening-day panel, the symposium will feature two other Speckled Bird forums: Feb. 19 (also the last day of the exhibit) from 11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m. on Decatur Campus in SF-2100 and Feb. 17 from 10-11:15 a.m. on Clarkston Campus in CL-1000.

“The Great Speckled Bird really provides an amazing window into the past,” says Robert Woodrum, co-coordinator of the Decatur Campus symposium and a GPC history professor. “It reflected all of these cultural changes that were going on in Atlanta and the southeastern region.”

The GPC 1960s Symposium will feature events on all campuses, including a variety of panel discussions, concerts and other events. It is part of the college’s 50th anniversary celebration.

Visit http://www.gpc.edu/celebrate50/events for a full schedule of symposium activities.