Celebrated Author and Historian Lerone A. Martin to Speak at Whitworth on Feb. 26

Whitworth’s Weyerhaeuser Center for Christian Faith & Learning in partnership with Whitworth’s Office of Church Engagement, Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and Speakers & Artists is pleased to welcome religious scholar, historian and author Lerone A. Martin, Ph.D., to campus on Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. for a discussion called, “A King for Our Times.”

Martin is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor in religious studies and professor of African & African American studies at Stanford University. He also serves as the director of Stanford’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Research & Education Institute where his responsibilities include editing King’s sermons, speeches and unpublished papers.

We're thrilled to have such an excellent – and timely – speaker visit Whitworth to address the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” says Davey Henreckson, director of Weyerhaeuser Center for Christian Faith & Learning. “As Lerone Martin's scholarship shows, King's call for justice is both radical and deeply Christian. This is a wonderful opportunity for Whitworth's campus community to engage with a world-class scholar on an incredibly contemporary set of questions.”

Martin’s most recent book, The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism, is still garnering praise from numerous publications including The Nation, Foreign Affairs, The Guardian, Publisher’s Weekly and History Today. His nonfiction book and adapted graphic novel about the adolescence and calling of Martin Luther King Jr. are forthcoming. 

His commentary and writings have been featured on The History Channel, PBS and C-SPAN as well as in The New York Times, Boston Globe and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

Martin has received several nationally recognized fellowships and grants in support of his research. Most recently, he was named co-director of “The Crossroads Project” to advance -public understanding of the history, politics and cultures of African American religions, as part of a $1 million grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. 

Martin has been the featured speaker at many national conferences and has addressed audiences at Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia and Georgetown universities. 

The free event will be held in Weyerhaeuser Hall’s Robinson Teaching Theatre and is open to the public. 

About Whitworth University:

Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private Christian liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian church. The university, which has an enrollment of about 2,500 students, offers more than 100 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. 

Contacts: 

Trisha Coder, associate director of media relations, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4703 or tcoder@whitworth.edu