Events / 2016 Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Lecture

2016 Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Lecture

4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.
Eric P. Newman Center, 320 S. Euclid Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110

This evening event is open to Washington University and the St. Louis community. Past speakers have included Charles Ogletree and Johnnetta Cole, and William Julius Wilson.

Guest speaker: Sherman James, PhD

Lecture title: “The Black Image in the White Mind: Implications for Achieving Racial Equity in America.”

Sherman James, PhD is the guest speaker for the Office of Diversity Programs 2016 Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Lecture.  A social epidemiologist, James is a Research Professor of Epidemiology and African American Studies at Emory University.  At Duke, he was the inaugural Susan B. King Professor of Public Policy from 2003-2014 and also held professorships in Sociology, Community and Family Medicine, and African and African American Studies.  Prior to Duke, he taught in the epidemiology departments at the University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill (1973-1989), and the University of Michigan (1989-2003).

James received the AB degree (Psychology and Philosophy) from Talladega College (AL) in 1964, and the PhD degree in Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, in 1973.

James is the originator of the John Henryism Hypothesis which posits that repetitive, “high-effort” coping with social and economic adversity is a major contributor to the well-known excess risk for hypertension and related cardiovascular diseases experienced by poor and working class African Americans. He received a 5 year (1982-1987) Research Career Development Award, followed by over 20 years of continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health to support his work on John Henryism.

James was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) of the National Academy of Sciences, in 2000.  In 2007-2008, he served as president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER), the largest professional organization of epidemiologists in the world.  In 2008, he was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Washington University in St. Louis, and he currently serves on Washington University’s National Advisory Council for Arts and Sciences.

The Celebration lecture will take place at 4:00 p.m. in the Eric P. Newman Center at Washington University School of Medicine, 320 S. Euclid Av.

The event is free of charge.

To RSVP, please call the Office of Diversity Programs at 314-362-6854 or email us at medschooldiversity@wusm.wustl.edu.

Learn more about the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Lecture »