Dr. Calvin White, Jr. will deliver the annual Robert B. Walz Lecture in Arkansas and Regional History at 7 pm, Thursday, October 1, in the Foundation Hall of the Reynolds Center at Southern Arkansas University.
White’s presentation is “Reconstruction, Reformation, and the Roots of the Church of God in Christ.” The lecture is free and open to the public. The audience is also welcomed to attend a reception for Calvin White, Jr. in the Reynolds Center following the lecture.
White is the chair of the History Department and former director of the African and African American Studies Program at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
He is the author of The Rise to Respectability: Race, Religion, and the Church of God in Christ, published by the University of Arkansas Press. He has published numerous articles and reviews in scholarly journals as well as spoken frequently to groups throughout Arkansas and the nation.
He is the recipient of several national fellowships, and has served as a Gilder-Lehrman Fellow at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York. He also serves on the board of directors of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
A native of Stuttgart, White earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Mississippi.
Dr. Robert Walz taught history at SAU from 1958 to 1987. He promoted the study of Arkansas history through his scholarship, preservation of historic photographs, and leadership in state organizations.
The Walz Lectureship was established in 1995 with a bequest from the estate of Mrs. Curtistine A. Walz, in honor of her husband’s long service to the university.
The lecture is sponsored by the College of Liberal and Performing Arts at Southern Arkansas University.
