Lecture Series
Black American Studies Lecture Series 2023-2024
Mr. Anthony Ray Hinton: Black American Lecture Series
Anthony Ray Hinton walked out of the Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham, Alabama, a free man for the first time in 30 years at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, April 3, 2015.
“The sun does shine,” he said as he was embraced by family and friends.
One of the longest serving death row prisoners in Alabama history and among the longest serving condemned prisoners to be freed after presenting evidence of innocence, Mr. Hinton was the 152nd person exonerated from death row since 1983.
Thirty years ago, Mr. Hinton was arrested and charged with two capital murders based solely on the assertion that a revolver taken from his mother’s home was the gun used in both murders and in a third uncharged crime.
Today, as EJI Community Educator, he’s a tireless and powerful advocate for abolition of the death penalty.
Mr. Hinton is scheduled to speak on Thursday, October 12 at 7:00 pm in the Carnegie's Grand Soldiers Ballroom.
Black American Studies Lecture Series 2022-2023
Dr. James Hildreth: Black American Studies Lecture Series
James E.K. Hildreth, Ph.D., M.D. is the 12th president and chief executive officer of Meharry Medical College, the nation’s largest private, independent historically black academic health sciences center. A native of Camden, Arkansas, Dr. Hildreth began his undergraduate studies in 1975 at Harvard University and was selected as the first African-American Rhodes Scholar from Arkansas in 1978. He graduated from Harvard magna cum laude in chemistry in 1979. That fall, Dr. Hildreth enrolled at Oxford University in England, graduating with a Ph.D. in immunology in 1982. At Oxford he studied the biology of cytotoxic T cells with Professor Andrew McMichael and became an expert in mono-clonal antibody technology and cell adhesion molecules.
Dr. Hildreth is tentatively scheduled to speak on Thursday, October 13 in the Carnegie's Grand Soldiers Ballroom.
Black American Studies Lecture Series 2020-2021
Curtis Wilkie Reading and Lecture
Black American Studies kicks off its lecture series with Curtis Wilkie. Wilkie is a journalist, retired professor, and historian hailing from Greenville, Mississippi. He wrote for the Boston Globe from 1975-2001 after which he returned to Mississippi to join the Ole Miss journalism faculty. He has since retired from Ole Miss in 2020. Most of Wilkie's career has been focused on politics and issues related to social justice. Mr. Wilkie will be joining us via Zoom on Tuesday, October 19 at 7 p.m. We hope you join us for night with an incredible guest. For questions about joining the Zoom meeting, please contact Lydia Carr.
Dr. William H. Turner Lecture and Book Signing
Black American Studies is proud to partner with Appalachian Studies to bring Dr. William H. Turner to ETSU. Dr. Turner will discuss his new book, The Harlan Renaissance, an intimate remembrance of kinship and community from the treasured son of one of the most successful and diverse coal camps in Appalachia's history.
Dr. Turner is the preeminent chronicler of the Black experience in Appalachia. His many honors include: Kentucky’s 2006 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Person of the Year, membership in Kentucky’s Civil Rights Hall of Fame, and the Appalachian Studies Association Lifetime Service Award.
Book signing to follow, with copies available for purchase.
The event will take place on Thursday, October 21 at 7 p.m. in the Cave.
