Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Isabel Wilkerson to speak at Elmhurst College on July 28

 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist and Author of The Warmth of Other Suns to Discuss the Great Migration of African Americans from the South

           

 Elmhurst, IL  – Isabel Wilkerson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The Warmth of Other Suns, will present “The Decision of Their Lives: The Great Migration and the American Story” on Thursday, July 28, at Elmhurst College.

Wilkerson’s talk is based on The Warmth of Other Suns, her award-winning book about the migration of more than 6 million African Americans from the South to points around the nation, including Chicago, between 1915 and 1970. Her lecture, co-sponsored by Elmhurst College and the Society for Values in Higher Education, will begin at 7:00 p.m.

in Hammerschmidt Memorial Chapel (190 Prospect Ave. in Elmhurst, elmhurst.edu/campusmap). Admission is free and the public is welcome to attend.

The Warmth of Other Suns was recognized by The New York Times as one of “The 10 Best Books of 2010,” and also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. The product of nearly 15 years of research and writing, the book collects oral histories from African Americans who left the South during The Great Migration, telling their stories through the lives of three individuals.

 A longtime journalist at The New York Times, as well as an author and professor at Boston University, Wilkerson was the Times’ Chicago bureau chief in 1994 when she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. She won the Pulitzer for her coverage of the historic 1993 Midwestern floods and a profile on a 10-year-old boy growing up with a man’s obligations on Chicago’s South Side. 

  Wilkerson is speaking at Elmhurst College as the keynote lecturer of the conference “Immigration and Identities: Academic Cultures in Transition,” to be held from July 27-31 during the 87^th annual meeting of the Society for Values in Higher Education.

 For more information on the lecture, visit elmhurst.edu or call (630) 617-3390.

The Society for Values in Higher Education (SVHE) is a fellowship of educators in all academic fields and professionals serving society in fields such as law, medicine, government, and nonprofit administration. SVHE puts its core values of integrity, diversity, social justice, and civic responsibility into action through its publications, projects, regional and national meetings, and outreach.

 

Elmhurst College is a leading liberal arts college located eight miles west of Chicago. The College’s mission is to prepare its students for meaningful and ethical work in a multicultural, global society. Elmhurst College fosters learning and enriches culture through innovation, scholarship and creative expression. Approximately 3,400 full- and part-time students are enrolled in its 22 undergraduate academic departments and nine graduate degree programs.