Arlington resident Marion Kilson, a volunteer with the Friends of the Robbins Library, and Gwen Wong, the Secretary for the Friends will discuss Martin Kilson’s memoir, A Black Intellectual’s Odyssey: From a Pennsylvania Milltown to the Ivy League. Kilson takes readers on a fascinating journey from his upbringing in the small Pennsylvania milltown of Ambler, to his experiences attending Lincoln University, the country’s oldest historically black university, to pursuing graduate study at Harvard University before spending his entire career there as a faculty member. In 1969, Kilson became the first African American to be appointed a full professor in Harvard College where he taught courses on African and African American topics for more than thirty years. His memoir describes his personal story–his youth, education and academic career, as well as his research in West Africa. This is as much a story of his travels from the racist margins of twentieth century America to one of the nation’s most prestigious institutions, as it is a portrait of the places that shaped him.
Interested readers can find Martin Kilson’s memoir on the “Arlington Authors” book shelf in the Reading Room.
This event will take place in the Robbins Library Community Room (lower level) on Thursday, May 18 at 7 pm. Admission is free and open to all.