Leading Black Educator and Author to Speak at Princeton University

Princeton, NJ -- Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Executive Director of the NY Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black

Culture, will give a free public talk on Wednesday, June 8, 7 p.m. in Friend Center 101 of Princeton University, located at the intersection of William and Olden Streets in Princeton.

Lawyer, artist and cultural rights activist Rhinhold Lamar Ponder will moderate.

The presentation will be followed by a Question and Answer period. Those planning to attend are asked, but are not required, to RSVP on Eventbrite at bit.ly/KGMuhammad to ensure their seat(s).

“We are pleased and honored to be hosting such a prominent author and expert on dealing with the continuing problem of racism in America,” Ross Wishnick, Chair of the Princeton Human Services Commission, said in a release this week. “We are honored that such a broad and diverse coalition has agreed to collaborate on this important event. We believe this talk will be an important opportunity for people throughout the region to learn more and become empowered to take effective action toward reducing and ultimately ending racism.”

Muhammad is a professor, author, and media commentator who is viewed as one of the most prominent Black intellectuals in the nation.

After earning his PhD in History from Rutgers, he worked several years in the Vera Institute of Justice, which works on progressive initiatives in the criminal justice system.

Subsequently he taught at Indiana University before assuming his current role in 2011.

In 2010, Muhammad authored “The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern America,” published by Harvard University Press.

The book, which won the John Hope Franklin Publication Prize, looks at how racist ideology has shaped the treatment of criminality in urban America among African-American populations. Autographed copies of the book will be available

Muhammad will begin his next job as Professor of History, Race, and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study starting July 1, 2016.

Convened by the Princeton Human Services Commission, a diverse and broad coalition of groups has come together to collaborate on this talk.

Initiators include the Princeton Human Services Commission, Princeton Public Library, and Not in Our Town. Additional support is coming from the Arts Council of Princeton, the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow, Coalition for Peace Action, Corner House, Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Princeton Family YMCA, Princeton Police Department, and the Princeton YWCA.