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DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. LECTURE: DR. MICHAEL ERIC DYSON

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture is sponsored by the Akron-Summit County Public Library, the Eta Tau Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., and the Ohio Humanities Spark Grant.

Michael Eric Dyson is one of the nation’s most renowned professors, gifted writers, inspiring preachers, knowledgeable lecturers, and prominent media personalities. As a teacher who earned a PhD in Religion from Princeton University, Dyson has taught at some of the nation’s most distinguished universities, including Brown, UNC Chapel Hill, Columbia, DePaul, the University of Pennsylvania, and Georgetown University. He is presently Distinguished University Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies, College of Arts & Science; and Distinguished University Professor of Ethics and Society, The Divinity School; and NEH Centennial Chair at Vanderbilt University. Dyson is one of America’s premier public intellectuals and author of over 25 books, including seven New York Times bestsellers. Dyson’s esteemed literary output won him the 2020 Langston Hughes Medal, which in the past was awarded to James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and August Wilson. Dyson has also won an American Book Award, a Southern Book Award, and two NAACP Image Awards.

Dyson has written bestselling volumes on Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, 2Pac, Marvin Gaye, Bill Cosby, and Barack Obama. Among his notable publications are “Reflecting Black: African American Cultural Criticism,” his pioneering book of Black cultural studies; “I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King Jr.,” his first book on the civil rights icon that probed his radical dimensions; “Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur,” which, according to Publisher’s Weekly, helped to prove that hip hop books are commercially viable; and “Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?” which helped to renew a conversation on class in Black America. Dyson’s book on Cosby, and his popular volume, “Why I Love Black Women,” both won prestigious NAACP Image Awards for nonfiction.