For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey, 901/678-2843

Dr. Clayborne Carson

Carson is a professor of history and director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. He also serves as Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Professor and executive director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Collection at Morehouse College. The Morehouse collection is the most extensive compilation of King’s personal writings, featuring more than 10,000 pieces.

In 1985 the late Coretta Scott King asked Carson to direct a long-term project to edit and publish her husband’s papers. Under Carson’s direction, the King Papers Project has produced six volumes of The Papers of Martin Luther King Jr., a projected 14-volume comprehensive edition of speeches, sermons, correspondence, publications, and unpublished writings.

Carson has taught at Stanford since earning his doctorate from UCLA in 1975. He also has been a visiting professor at American University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Emory University, as well as a fellow at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

While an undergraduate at UCLA, Carson participated in civil rights and antiwar protests, and many of his writings reflect those experiences by stressing the importance of grassroots political activity within the African-American struggle for civil rights.

Parking for the event is available in the Southern Avenue parking lot or the Zach Curlin Parking Garage.

For more information, call 901-678-2515.