"The N Word" is one of the works in the Civil Rights Civil Wrongs exhibit at the University Union.

A new art exhibit in Sacramento State’s University Union Gallery (http://theuniversityunion.com/gallery) examines the Civil Rights Era through images of the people who championed civil rights, and through the words used to suppress and harass a people.

Civil Rights Civil Wrongs runs through Thursday, Dec. 17. A special reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3, at the gallery. The exhibit and reception are free and open to the public.

The exhibit is the creation of artist Michael Stevenson and is curated by Felicenne Ramey, a former professor and dean of the College of Business Administration.

Civil Rights Civil Wrongs juxtaposes racially charged words with images of prominent women and men from the Civil Rights Era. Stevenson’s goal is to transform today’s casual use of hateful slurs.

Stevenson was born and raised in Nashville, Tenn. His family moved to Davis when he was 16, and he graduated from UC Davis in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in design. He is known primarily for his crosshatch pencil drawings and use of mixed media of watercolor, acrylic, pencil, and computer-generated graphics.

Before its display at Sacramento State, Civil Rights Civil Wrongs was on exhibit at the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

“My creative world has largely been shaped by the images of daily life in the African American community in which I grew up,” Stevenson says in his biography. “My work may appear to be African American in nature, but to me it is simply a reflection of life.”

He and Ramey will attend the Dec. 3 reception to discuss the works.

The gallery is on the second floor of the University Union. For more information, visit the website or call (916) 278-6997. Regular hours are 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, with special evening hours of 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays.

For more information, visit the University Union Gallery’s website or call (916) 278-7250. For media assistance, call Zenia LaPorte, the Union’s assistant director, Programs and Marketing, at (916) 278-2868. – Craig Koscho