As the University of Memphis continues to celebrate Black History Month, the campus community will welcome Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Isabel Wilkerson on Thursday, Feb. 7.
The Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities is presenting the annual endowed Belle McWilliams Lecture in American History featuring Wilkerson.
Wilkerson will deliver her lecture "The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration" at 6:30 p.m. in the Michael D. Rose Theatre on campus.
A preceding reception will begin at 6 p.m.
The lecture will explore the "Great Migration" of blacks from the rural south to the urban north during the 20th century.
"This year's Black History Month theme is 'The Fight for Freedom Continues,'" according to Aram Goudsouzian, professor of history and director of the Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities. "By showing the continuing effects of the Great Migration upon African-Americans and the entire country, Ms. Wilkerson offers us a historic perspective on issues of race, community and the nation."
The lecture is based on her award-winning book "The Warmth of Other Suns," which tells the story of three individuals who made the journey from the South to the North and what inspired their move in an effort to realize the American dream.
The 2010 nonfiction work was constructed after 15 years of research and more than 1,200 interviews.
"Ms. Wilkerson will reflect on how the Great Migration changed the face of America - its race relations, the patterns of its cities, its music, its political balance," said Goudsouzian. "It is a story that anyone interested in the history of the United States would appreciate. It is also a very human, personal story, which is thanks to Ms. Wilkerson's greatest gift as a writer."
Wilkerson, a former correspondent for the New York Times, was the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize.
"The Warmth of Others Suns" has received more than 10 major literary prizes and was named to more than 30 lists of "Best Books of the Year."
"In powerful, lyrical prose that combines the historian's rigor with the novelist's empathy, Wilkerson's book changes our understanding of the Great Migration and indeed of the modern United States," wrote judges of the Lynton History Prize.
Numerous university departments, including the African and African-American Studies program, the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change, the Department of English and the Department of Journalism worked with the Facing History and Ourselves organization to sponsor Wilkerson's visit to the U of M campus.
The lecture is free and open to the public and will be followed by a book signing.
