Fr. Ted Said… Civil & Human Rights: Sonnie W. Hereford IV ’79

Sonnie W. Hereford IV ’79, Senior Systems Engineer and Civil Rights Activist, speaks as part of the Alumni Association’s Fr. Ted Said…Speaker Series during Reunion 2019. The series offers thought-provoking talks by ND faculty and alumni that explore the world’s most pressing problems and honor the legacy of Fr. Hesburgh.

Hereford was born in 1957 in East Chicago, IN, and became the first black child to integrate into the Alabama Public School system in 1963. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Notre Dame in 1979, is the founder of the ND Alumni Association chapter in Huntsville, Ala., and has served on the ND Alumni Association National Board of Directors. In 2016, Sonnie Hereford Elementary School in Huntsville, Alabama, was opened and named for Hereford and his father, Dr. Sonnie Wellington Hereford III. Hereford currently works for Insight Global (at Northrop Grumman, Huntsville, AL) as a Systems Engineer.