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Wednesday, November 5 at 7 PM via ZOOM: "Uncomfortable Conversations" featuring Mary Alice Busby
Time: Nov 5, 2025 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/95785492096?pwd=FLrfbW2P2baaTOm1JW4eE5O96wanAv.1
Meeting ID: 957 8549 2096
Passcode: 572713
You are invited to join the Sixty Fourth meeting of “Uncomfortable Conversations” on Zoom, devoted to the issue of race in the country. Please share this invitation with others who may be interested to participate.
These meetings are intended to provide learning opportunities from personal stories and experiences of people who have been directly affected. These personal stories and experiences may be better appreciated if one looks back on the past with a view to understand how as a nation we have gotten to this point!
The presenter at the next “Uncomfortable Conversations” series is Mary Alice Busby, Esquire.
Mary Alice Busby is a retired attorney. She began her career as Assistant Professor of Business Law in the College of Business at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan and retired as a Shareholder in Mette, Evans & Woodside, a mid-size Harrisburg, Pennsylvania law firm. In the interim, she served as in-house corporate counsel for Sunoco and Carpenter Technology Corporation. In 1991, she was named by Ebony Magazine as one of the 100 most powerful Black women in corporate America.
From humble beginnings in a sharecropper’s cabin in Bentonia, Mississippi, Mary Alice graduated Valedictorian of her Ottawa Lake, Michigan high school class and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Lambda Delta Honor Societies. She received her law degree from the University of Michigan.
Mary Alice’s family moved from Bentonia, MS to Ottawa Lake, MI following the 1955 brutal murder of Emmett Till in Sumner, MS. Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African American from Chicago visiting his family in MS. He was abducted and lynched after being accused of offending a white woman. His body was discovered in the Tallahatchie River, with signs of severe mutilation and violence. Pictures of Till’s beaten and mutilated body persuaded Mary Alice’s mother to move to Michigan for the safety of her children. In addition, her mother, who had only a 6th grade education, sought greater educational opportunities for her children.
In this compelling presentation, Mary Alice reflects on her journey through the legal profession, marked by persistent barriers and bias. From early discouragement to systemic exclusion in hiring and advancement, she faced challenges that tested her resolve and professional identity. Her decision to pursue private practice was a bold response to the limitations of corporate structures. Mary Alice’s story is a testament to resilience, integrity, and the ongoing struggle for equity in the workplace.
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