Cornel West, among the nation’s most provocative public intellectuals, will deliver Brown University’s 11th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture on Friday, Feb. 2, 2007, at 4 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, Room 101. His talk, titled “The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” is free and open to the public.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Distinguished teacher, public intellectual and best-selling author Cornel West will deliver the 11th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture at Brown University on Friday, Feb. 2, 2007. His talk, titled “The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” will begin at 4 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, Room 101. It is free and open to the public.

A champion of racial justice since childhood, Cornel West has been called one of America’s most provocative public intellectuals. His writing, speaking and teaching weave together the traditions of the black Baptist church, progressive politics and jazz. The New York Times has praised his “ferocious moral vision.”

Currently the Class of 1943 Professor at Princeton University, West burst onto the national scene in 1993 with his bestselling book, Race Matters, an analysis of racism in American democracy. Race Matters has become a contemporary classic, selling more than 400,000 copies to date. In addition, West has published 16 other books and has edited 13 texts.

West earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard in three years, magna cum laude. After earning his Ph.D. at Princeton, he became a professor of religion and director of the Afro-American Studies program there. West has also taught at Union Theological Seminary, Yale, Harvard and the University of Paris.

In his most recent book, Democracy Matters (2004), West analyzes the arrested development of democracy both in America and in the crisis-ridden Middle East. He argues that if America is to become a better steward of democratization around the world, it must first recognize its own long history of imperialist corruption. West was also an influential force in developing the storyline for the popular Matrix movie trilogy and has served as its official spokesperson, as well as playing a recurring role in the final two films.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture

The Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture was established at Brown University in 1996, with former New York Mayor David Dinkins as the inaugural speaker. Past lecturers have included Hugh B. Price, president and CEO of the National Urban League; Lee Mun Wah, community therapist, poet and the maker of the film The Color of Fear; Elizabeth Martinez, Chicana activist and author of Des Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century; William Julias Wilson, sociologist and author of The Bridge over the Racial Divide: Rising Inequality and Coalition Politics; Jane E. Smith, president and CEO of the National Council of Negro Women Inc.; Johnnetta B. Cole, professor emerita of Emory University and president emerita of Spelman College; Randall Kennedy, professor of law at Harvard Law School; and Michael Lomax, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund.

This lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the Office of University Events at (401) 863-2474.

Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews, and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call (401) 863-2476.

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