Honoring 100 years of work from W.E.B. Du Bois

NEW PALTZ — A lecture honoring and celebrating 100 years of the work of W.E.B. Du Bois will be held on the SUNY New Paltz campus at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 23, in the Lecture Center, room 100. The event is free and open to the public.

The lecture, facilitated by Dr. David W. Blight, professor of African-American studies and history at Yale University, will focus on “Du Bois, an American Tragedy: the Souls of Black Folk as History,” a compilation of essays and sketches by Du Bois.

Blight is a nationally recognized scholar on race in American history. He co-edited the mentor publication of “Souls of Black Folk” and has been awarded the Lincoln Prize and the Fredrick Douglas Prize for his scholarly writings pertaining to the American Civil War.

Jerry Persaud, lecturer in the Department of Communication and Media at SUNY New Paltz, has said that Du Bois is considered the most important black protest leader in the United States during the first half of the 20th century, and that he devoted his life to ending injustice and defending freedom and shared in the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

For more information about the lecture, please contact professor Jerry Persaud at (845) 257-2631.