Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize winning historian, to visit UAA

by Kathleen McCoy  |   

Myths and miracles of Martin Luther King and the civil rights era

ANCHORAGE, AK - Highly acclaimed civil rights scholar and award-winning author, Taylor Branch, will visit the University of Alaska Anchorage's (UAA) Wendy Williamson Auditorium on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. UAA Student Activities, AHAINA Student Services and the UAA Concert Board are proud to present this Pulitzer Prize winner who will give a free lecture about "Myths and Miracles During the King Years."

Taylor Branch has brought America's civil rights movement back to life through his writing. Branch is the author of Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65, and At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68, a three-volume series of Martin Luther King Jr.'s role in the civil rights movement.

Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, Taylor Branch witnessed the civil rights movement unfolding first hand. Branch describes the civil rights movement as the emotional interior that changed his life's work. He became interested in history and politics while attending the University of North Carolina, where he majored in American history.

His best-selling Parting the Waters won the Pulitzer Prize in 1989. The author of two other non-fiction books and a novel, Mr. Branch is a former staff member of The Washington Monthly, Harper's and Esquire. In addition to earning the Pulitzer Prize for History, Branch has won the Books Critics Circle Award, the American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award and the Imus Book Award.

Branch's free lecture at UAA comes shortly after the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and just prior to Black History Month. Mr. Branch will address the momentous changes caused by the civil rights era and the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. Following the lecture, Branch will answer questions and sign copies of his books.

Reservations can be made at www.uaatix.com. For more information, please call 786-1213.
Creative Commons License "Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize winning historian, to visit UAA " is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.