NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Noted scholar and orator Cornel West will deliver a talk titled “Race and Democracy” at Vanderbilt University on Thursday, Feb. 13.
West’s talk begins at 6 p.m. in Ingram Hall at the Blair School of Music, located at the corner of 24th and Capers avenues, just off Blakemore Avenue. The event is free and open to the public. Free parking is available in the Capers Avenue Garage.
A 5 p.m. reception at Ingram Hall – which is also open to the public – will precede West’s lecture – the final event of the University’s 2003 Martin Luther King Commemorative Series: Colors of Justice.
The Class of 1943 Professor of Religion at Princeton University, West previously was Alphonse Fletcher Jr. University Professor at Harvard University teaching courses in Afro-American Studies and Philosophy of Religion. Recently, he was W.E.B. Du Bois Lecturer at Harvard.
He has been on the faculty of Yale University and Union Theological Seminary, as well as previously heading the Department of Afro-American Studies at Princeton.
West is the author of numerous articles and books including "The Cornel West Reader, The African American Century", "Prophesy Deliverance: An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity", "Prophetic Reflections and Prophetic Thought in Postmodern Times" and "Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin", which was coauthored with Michael Lerner.
His breakthrough book, "Race Matters", was published in 1993, quickly achieved bestseller status and garnered media attention in Time Magazine and Newsweek.
West, who was born in Tulsa, Okla., and is the son of a civilian Air Force administrator father and elementary school teacher mother, moved around a great deal as a child finally settling in Sacramento, Calif.
It was in Sacramento, that West began a lifelong habit of protest by refusing to salute the American flag because of the second-class status of African-Americans in this country.
West holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and master’s and doctorate degrees from Princeton University.
The Chancellor’s Lecture Series and the University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Series are sponsoring West’s talk at Vanderbilt.
Media contact: Princine Lewis, 615-322-NEWS, princine.l.lewis@vanderbilt.edu