Jacksonville, FL, April 16, 2019 – Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, award-winning historian, New York Times Best-Selling Author, and 2016 National Book Award winner will deliver the Edward Waters College’s spring commencement address on Saturday, May 11, 2019 at Bethel Baptist Church.

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is a University Professor of History and Director of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University in Washington, D.C. A graduate of Florida A&M University, at 34 years old Dr. Kendi was the youngest ever winner of the National Book Award for non-fiction.

“I am very pleased to announce that Dr. Ibram X. Kendi will join us as our speaker for the Edward Waters spring commencement ceremony,” said President & CEO, Dr. A. Zachary Faison, Jr. “An award-winning historian and best-selling author, Dr. Kendi is a renowned self-professed hardcore humanist and a leading voice in our national discourse on racial reconciliation, social justice and humanity. His diverse perspectives and commentary on key issues affecting our lives will enrich and inspire our graduates as they embark to make a meaningful difference in their local communities and throughout the world.”

Consistent with the College’s mission of nurturing a rich intellectual community, earlier this academic year Edward Waters College (EWC) launched its inaugural Shared Common Reading Initiative which was developed as a way to challenge students, faculty, and staff to examine themselves and the local and global worlds they inhabit through reading. This year’s shared common reading text, Stamped From The Beginning: A Definitive History of Racist Ideas In America by Dr. Kendi, encourages integration of these ideas and perspectives amongst all members of the Edward Waters College community.

In 2019, Dr. Kendi was selected as a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow. In addition, Dr. Kendi has published fourteen essays in books and academic journals, and he is the author of the award-winning book on Black student activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, The Black Campus Movement. Kendi has been visiting professor at Brown University, a 2013 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow, and postdoctoral fellow at the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis. A frequent speaker and contributor of op-eds, Kendi has written for several periodicals including Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, The Root, Salon, The New York Times, New York Daily News, Time, Signature, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. He is currently working on his next book, How To Be An Antiracist, which will be published in 2019 by One World, a division of Penguin Random House.

“The entire Edward Waters College community is thrilled that Dr. Kendi will join us at this year’s Commencement, as we continue to work with great vigor and focus towards providing our students with a competitive higher educational experience that is Nulli Secundus—Second to None!” said President Faison.

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About Edward Waters College
Edward Waters College (EWC), accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges, and Schools (SACS) and member of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), is a private, historically black, urban college which offers a liberal arts education with a strong emphasis on the Christian principles of high moral and spiritual values. EWC was established in 1866 and is an African Methodist Episcopal Church-related institution of learning. It is the first private institution of higher education in the State of Florida.