Bankole Thompson, the eminent journalist, public intellectual and racial justice champion, whose work is noted for probing the uncomfortable issues of race, freedom and equality, will deliver the keynote lecture on Thursday, Feb. 29 at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan to capstone the observance of Black History Month. It will take place at 7pm in the CAS Auditorium, S100.
Thompson, one of the nation’s leading Black journalists, is the executive dean of The PuLSE Institute, Detroit’s national anti-poverty think tank, which was founded based on his work on race and democracy. He is a twice-a-week opinion columnist at The Detroit News, where his column on the presidency, public leadership and social and economic justice issues appear on Mondays and Thursdays in the newspaper.
A nationally sought-after speaker and thought leader, Thompson, has addressed many leading institutions over the years, and has been a constant and powerful voice on the issues of equity and economic justice.
His upcoming keynote speech titled, “Equitable and Inclusive Higher Education: A Racial Justice Imperative,” at a university that has produced technology innovators and leaders including Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft, who got his start at LTU, is part of the Inclusion and Social Change Lecture at Lawrence Technological University.
The program is sponsored by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, in collaboration with the College of Architecture and Design, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business and Information Technology, College of Engineering, and College of Health Sciences.
“The Inclusion and Social Change keynote by Bankole underscores the critical role of LTU in championing inclusive higher education as a cornerstone for positive societal advancement. The keynote will offer important insights for leaders committed to driving positive social change,” said Matthew L. Cole, the interim dean of the College of Business and Information Technology.
Caryn Reed-Hendon, the director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at LTU, said the lecture being held on the last day of Black History Month promises to be an insightful and engaging discussion.
“Incorporating a keynote lecture by Bankole on inclusion and social change during Black History Month not only acknowledges the not-too-distant past, it empowers us in the present to shape a more equitable future,” Reed-Hendon said. “It underscores the necessity of both as a catalyst for strategic planning and achieving the main goal of moving the needle towards what we hope for – a society developed for all people by the people.”
Thompson’s latest book, Fiery Conscience, about his decades of speaking truth to power in the public domain was released to wide acclaim last August.
Ron Fournier, a veteran journalist from Detroit, who served as White House correspondent, and Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press, during which he covered three presidential administrations including Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama praised Fiery Conscience as a “timely tome,” while calling Thompson, “the soul of Detroit” who is “prodding his readers to heed the fierce urgency of now.”
Sister Simone Campbell, leader of the historic “Nuns on the Bus” campaign, and a leading anti-poverty and racial justice champion in the modern American Catholic Church who received the 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom, has followed Thompson’s work over the years. She offered this commendation on the back cover of Fiery Conscience.
“In the midst of these turbulent times in our nation, we need Fiery Conscience more than ever. We are all called to speak out for the sake of truth and struggle together across divides to realize a justice that includes all. Bankole Thompson does just that and his witness can nourish our spirits,” Campbell wrote.
Herb Boyd, the celebrated historian, author and journalist, who is noted for his works on 20th century Black leaders Malcolm X and James Baldwin, contributed a chapter in Fiery Conscience explaining the significance and impact of Thompson’s work, including how Thompson served as his editor over the years.
In the book, Boyd describes Thompson as a writer “Imbued with a sense of uncommon integrity and the courage, as we used to say, ‘to tell like it is!’ That honesty was something most readers were not prepared for but Bankole then, and now, is determined to express his views and let the chips and gripes fall where they may.”
Boyd explains in Fiery Conscience, that he had long admired Thompson, “Since the very beginning of our stands on the rampart, and it’s good to know that this particular enterprise comes at a most conspicuous time in our nation’s history, that in President Biden’s estimation is at an ‘inflection point,’ and that’s nothing new for a frontline journalist like Bankole.”
Boyd adds, “Bankole is a resourceful agent in our fight for democracy and human rights.”
Thompson’s address at Lawrence Technological University, is coming at a time when institutions of higher learning around the nation are being challenged to define an inclusive and equitable future for students and faculty.
The need to urge colleges and universities to move in the direction of making inclusion and equity pillars of their vision for a successful and impactful organization is not new to Thompson.
For example, he in 2022, Thompson was the keynote speaker for Brown University Black History Month program on “Why Major Institutions Must Address the Fierce Urgency of Racial Justice,” during which Brown President Christina Paxson gave the welcome and closing remarks. The Ivy League school called his speech a “Tour de Force” for remarkably challenging major institutions to step up on racial equity.
In 2020, he accepted the invitation of Michigan State University to deliver the closing keynote address at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center in East Lansing for the 20th Annual Dr. William G. Anderson Slavery to Freedom: An American Odyssey Lecture Series, a program whose previous keynote speakers included late civil rights heroes Congressman John Lewis and Harry Belafonte. His keynote was titled: “Black Lamentations: The Redemptive Need for Healing in American Democracy.”
At Dillard University in New Orleans, Thompson, was invited on April 7, 2022, the week of the anniversary assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to speak on the topic “Race and Poverty: A Question of Leadership and Ending the Nightmare of Black Exploitation.” His speech on income inequality and the crisis of homeownership in the Black community at one of the nation’s prominent Historically Black Colleges and Universities founded during Reconstruction, and which once discussed with Dr. King about him serving as dean of the university chapel, was described as a “thought-provoking presentation,” for students.
Thompson’s lecture later this month at Lawrence Technological University is free and open to the public.
