California State University, Northridge

PRESS RELEASE

January 28, 1997

Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler,
(818) 677-2130
cchandler@exec.csun.edu

Pulitzer Prize Winner to Inaugurate Du Bois-Hamer Institute

David Levering Lewis, the 1994 Pulitzer Prize winning author of W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, will talk about the responsibilities of a scholar to the community at the inauguration of Cal State Northridge's Du Bois-Hamer Institute for African American Achievement on Friday, February 14.

Lewis's lecture will begin at 11 a.m. in the Grand Salon of the University Student Union near the center of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

Lewis holds the Martin Luther King Jr. chair in history at Rutgers University.

His appearance marks the formal launching of CSUN's Du Bois-Hamer Institute, which was established to support the academic achievement of African American students. The institute's mission includes partnerships on the campus and with the external community.

The institute was named after W.E.B. Du Bois, the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and Fannie Lou Hamer, who went from being a sharecropper to becoming a powerful political figure in the 1960s.

"Du Bois-Hamer's guiding principle is the creation of a 'village' environment devoted to graduating all the University's students," said Barbara A. Rhodes, director of the institute. "We are honored to have Mr. Lewis inaugurate such an important institution at the university."

For more information about the lecture or the institute, call (818) 677-3311.