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TONIGHT: Acclaimed Journalist Roland Martin to headline Davison Lecture Series

Posted on Feb 21, 2018

There are few journalists today whose frank talk and passionate reporting have more impact than the iconic Roland Martin, who will be featured in FVSU's John W. Davison Lecture Series on Thursday, February 22, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. in the C. W. Pettigrew Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Martin has interviewed U.S. president, top entertainers, and elite athletes, eliciting information and perspectives that have helped America understand itself better, particularly through an unashamedly African-American lens. He has taken on power brokers as well, from politicians to talk show hosts like Wendy Williams, pointing out what he considers to be the truth and never taking ignorance or "spin" for an answer. For four years, Americans woke up to Martin as he hosted NewsOneNow, which was billed as "the first daily morning show in history with a focus on news and analysis of politics, entertainment, sports, and culture from an explicitly African American perspective." He is also a senior analyst for the Tom Joyner Morning Show and pushes the show's 8 million listeners to think critically about public policy, culture, and lifestyles.

He is the author of three books: Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith; Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America; and The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House.

Martin has been named by Ebony Magazine as one of the 150 Most Influential African Americans in the United States four times and recognized as one of the Root 100, their annual list of the most powerful Americans. He has received more than 30 awards for journalistic excellence, including being named the Journalist of the Year in 2013 by the National Association of Black Journalists for his extensive focus on voter suppression and other issues of concern to African Americans during the 2012 election and induction into the Texas A&M University Journalism Hall of Honor. He is a four-time NAACP Image Award winner and has received honorary degrees from Florida Memorial University; University of Maryland-University College; Lemoyne-Owen College; Lane College; and South Carolina State University.

Learn more about Roland Martin here.

About the John W. Davison Lecture Series

Named after FVSU's principal founder, the John W. Davison Lecture Series began in 2002 to provide a venue for intellectual discourse by bringing premiere speakers on a variety of topics to engage the FVSU family and community in intellectual discourse. Previous speakers have included Cornell West; Dr. Henry Louis Gates; Dr. Michael Eric Dyson; television personality Derek "Fonzworth Bentley" Watkins; rap pioneer Christopher "Play" Martin; Issa Rae, creator of Awkward Black Girl; director Spike Lee; MIT professor Dr. Cardinal Warde, and famed educator Dr. Steve Perry, founder of Capital Preparatory; Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee; Charlayne Hunter-Gault; Amiri Baraka; Nikki Giovanni; former NAACP chief executive Kweisi Mfume; author Bebe Moore Campbell, Iyanla Vanzant; Dick Gregory; actor Richard Roundtree; and Sister Souljah.

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