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LAWRENCE -- On the day before Presidents Day, the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas will present Pulitzer Prize winner Roger Wilkins as the second speaker in the Dole Forum lecture series.
Wilkins, a journalist, activist and distinguished professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., will speak at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16, in Woodruff Auditorium at the Kansas Union.
The lecture is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and tickets are required for admission. Tickets are available at all KU ticket offices: the Lied Center, (785) 864-2787; Murphy Hall, (785) 864-3982; and SUA in the Kansas Union, (785) 864-SHOW.
The Dole Forum is a periodic lecture series featuring prominent people in the fields of government, politics and media. The series was inaugurated last fall with a speech by Brian Lamb, chair and CEO of C-SPAN.
Wilkins was born in 1932 in Kansas City, Mo. His father, a business manager with a prominent African-American newspaper, the Kansas City Call, died when Wilkins was a child. The family moved to New York and then to Michigan, where Wilkins spent his formative years.
Wilkins attended the University of Michigan, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1953. He earned a juris doctor degree in 1956 and interned with Thurgood Marshall at the Legal Defense Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Following graduation, Wilkins worked in several capacities as an advocate for justice, beginning his career as a caseworker in the Ohio Welfare Department. Later, Wilkins went on to work for USAID and as attorney general under President Lyndon B. Johnson.
In 1972, Wilkins began writing for the editorial page of the Washington Post just as the Watergate scandal was breaking. For his editorials about the issues, he shared a 1973 Pulitzer Prize with reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and cartoonist Herb Block. Wilkins then moved on to the New York Times, where he was the first African-American on the editorial board as well as a columnist.
Wilkins also has worked for the Institute for Policy Studies, the Washington Star, National Public Radio and CBS Radio. He continues to be a major commentator and analyst on American public policy and social justice issues.
Today, Wilkins is a history professor at George Mason University and has written or edited several books, including "A Man's Life," "Quiet Riots" and "Jefferson's Pillow." He also is the publisher of the NAACP's journal, the Crisis.
The Dole Institute was established at KU in 1997 to honor former presidential nominee and Senate majority leader Bob Dole. The Institute is designed to encourage student participation and citizen involvement in public service. Its 28,000-square-foot permanent home, under construction since October 2001, is scheduled to be dedicated July 22, 2003, Dole's 80th birthday.
For more information about the Institute and its programs, visit www.doleinstitute.org.
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