Pulitzer Prize-winner David Levering Lewis to address Class of 2003

David Levering Lewis, the double Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of historian W.E.B. Du Bois, will address the Class of 2003 at Wheaton's 168th commencement on May 17, 2003.

Joining Lewis on the dais will be honorary degree recipient and Wheaton graduates Catherine Keener '83, the Academy Award-nominated film actress; Patricia Phelps de Cisneros '69, philanthropist and champion of Latin American arts and education programs and Esther Newberg '63, joint head of International Creative Management in New York.

Following his address, Lewis will be joined by historian and civil rights activist Roger Wilkins (author of Jefferson's Pillow: America and the Dilemma of Black Patriotism) for a Commencement/Reunion Symposium, moderated by 60 Minutes co-editor and correspondent Lesley Stahl '63. Other Commencement/Reunion Weekend events include a panel discussion, ''The Many Faces of Leadership,'' moderated by EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman '68.

Lewis won a Pulitzer Prize for each of his two-volume biographies (W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919, Volume I; W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963) tracing the life of William Edward Burghardt Du Bois--activist, historian, scholar, sociologist, co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the leading proponent of the civil rights movement--until his death at age 95. Lewis has also been the recipient of a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship for his work.

Lewis was educated at Fisk University in Tennessee. He earned a master's degree from Columbia University and a doctorate from the London School of Economics and Political Science. For 18 years he taught courses on African-American history, the civil rights revolution, the literature of racism, global imperialism and world civilization at Rutgers University in New Jersey. In 2003, he joined the faculty at New York University.

In addition to his two-volume biography of Du Bois, he has authored several acclaimed books, including King: A Biography, When Harlem Was in Vogue, and The Race to Fashoda: European Colonialism and African Resistance in the Scramble for Africa.

Wheaton, located in Norton, Mass., is a selective college of the liberal arts and sciences with a student body of 1,550. It is a member of the Twelve College Exchange, which also includes Amherst, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Smith, Wellesley, Wesleyan and Williams.

For more information about Commencement/Reunion Weekend at Wheaton, please contact the Office of Communications at 508-286-8235.