Local scholar to speak at Martin Luther King, Jr. Day campus celebration

RELEASED: January 15, 2009

DANVILLE, KY—Dr. Gerald L. Smith—clergyman, author and educator—will be the speaker in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at Centre College on Sunday, Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. in Newlin Hall.

Smith, associate professor of African American history at the University of Kentucky and a Baptist minister, will focus on the life and legacy of King. Smith's studies of the King papers and conversations with King's widow, Coretta Scott King, provide insight into how the civil rights leader's legacy endures today.

Smith, a native of Lexington and pastor of the Farristown Baptist Church in Berea, is the author, editor or co-editor of three books. He is a volume co-editor of The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Vol. Six: Advocate of Social Gospel, March 1948 - September 1963, which was published in 2007 by the University of California Press. He has authored or co-authored more than 30 book reviews, essays, articles, and book chapters for historical journals and reference books. At present, he is researching and writing a new general history of the African American experience in Kentucky. He is also a general co-editor of the Kentucky African American Encyclopedia.

Smith received his bachelor's and master's degrees in American history from the University of Kentucky in 1981 and 1983, respectively. In 1988, he earned his Ph.D. in history from UK with a concentration in urban and African American history.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

For news archives go to http://www.centre.edu/web/news/newsarchive.html.