Fearless and Ferocious
Dr. Cornel West

Professor Cornel West will be the featured speaker at Baldwin Wallace’s “Enduring Questions Lecture Series” at the Lou Higgins Center, 136 E. Bagley Rd., Berea, on Fri 1/22 at 8PM. His appearance is part of the college’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration and this year’s theme is “Passion and Purpose.”

Currently the Class of 1943 Professor of Religion and African-American Studies at Princeton University, Dr. West ranks as one of the most provocative and insightful public intellectuals of our time. As author, speaker and commentator he addresses fundamental issues concerning topics such as democracy, racism, ethics, morals, and preserving our global society. He is the author of 16 books, most recently, “Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom.”

Cornel West has been a champion for racial justice since childhood. 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."

He burst onto the national scene in 1993 with his bestselling book, “Race Matters,” a searing analysis of racism in American democracy. The work has become a contemporary classic, selling more than half a million copies to date. In West’s long awaited life story, “BROTHER WEST: Living and Loving Out Loud,” he offers a compelling exploration of the heart behind the human mind. Themes include Faith, Family, Philosophy, Love and Service.

Dr. West entered Harvard University at age 17 and graduated magna cum laude in three years with a degree in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in 1973. He says that he was determined to press the university and its intellectual traditions into the service of his political agendas and not the other way around: to have its educational agendas imposed on him.

"Owing to my family, church, and the black social movements of the 1960s", he says, "I arrived at Harvard unashamed of my African, Christian, and militant de-colonized outlooks. More pointedly, I acknowledged and accented the empowerment of my black styles, mannerisms, and viewpoints, my Christian values of service, love, humility, and struggle, and my anti-colonial sense of self-determination for oppressed people and nations around the world." He earned a Ph.D. in 1980 from Princeton. His appearance at the college is being cosponsored by the Martin Luther King Week 2010 Committee.

From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier's From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.frombehindthewall.com.