Lecture Focuses on the Life and Times of the Marquis de Lafayette

John Scurich, a local political consultant, will give a talk on the Marquis de Lafayette at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 9, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.

This event is free of charge and is open to the public.

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, born in 1757, was a young, wealthy French aristocrat. He defied his own king to enter the American Revolution against Great Britain. After his success as a military leader, he became an influential statesman who continued to support democratic revolutions and human rights causes throughout his long career.

He explained his attraction to the American cause in a letter to his wife: “The welfare of America is intimately connected with the happiness of all mankind; she will become the respectable and safe asylum of virtue, integrity, tolerance, equality, and a peaceful liberty.”

After the American Revolution, Lafayette became an international antislavery advocate and took on many other social justice causes. Working with Thomas Jefferson, he helped write the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Men and of the Citizen, the first step toward a constitution for the Republic of France, helping launch the French Revolution.

Throughout his career, he befriended Native Americans, defended the rights of French Protestants and Jews before and during the French Revolution, backed national revolutions in Europe and South America, spoke out against capital punishment and solitary confinement, and supported women and their ideas and causes.

John Scurich is the owner and political director at Multi-Quest where he works as a consultant focusing on government relations, public relations and communications industries, specializing is political campaign strategy, electioneering and management. He is skilled in non-profit organizations, negotiation, government, market strategy, campaign management, and team building. He is a graduate of Loyola University New Orleans, and a Fellow and lecturer at the Loyola Institute of Politics.

Program inquiries should be directed to Chris Smith, Manager of Adult Programming, at 504-889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.