From the opening session of the American Public Health Association’s 138th Annual Meeting. Cornel Ronald West is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, and civil rights activist and currently serves as the Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University where he teaches in the Center for African American Studies and in the department of Religion. He is known for his combination of political and moral insight and criticism, and his contribution to the post-1960s civil rights movement. The bulk of his work focuses upon the role of race, gender, and class in American society and the means by which people act and react to their “radical conditionedness.” Born in Tulsa Oklahoma, West enrolled at Harvard University at age 17 and graduated magna cum laude in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization. He earned a Ph.D. in 1980 from Princeton. In his mid-twenties, he returned to Harvard as a Du Bois Fellow before becoming an assistant professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York. In 1985 he went to Yale Divinity School. While at Yale, he participated in campus protests for a clerical union and divestment from apartheid in South Africa which resulted in his being arrested and jailed. He then returned to Union and taught at Haverford College for one year before going to Princeton to become a professor of religion and director of the Program in African American Studies which he revitalized in cooperation with such scholars as novelist Toni Morrison. In 1994 …
jeff4justice
October 17, 2011 at 6:29 am
Please look up on YouTube:
Dr. Cornel West & Carl Dix On Gay Marriage
Dr. Cornel West Urged To Run For President By Jeff4Justice
Michaeljacksonvidful
October 17, 2011 at 6:51 am
@worldfamous09 ROFLL great comment
worldfamous09
October 17, 2011 at 7:40 am
I would cut off one of my fingers to have Dr. West as my professor.
28adrianpeterson
October 17, 2011 at 8:16 am
@UmmaYehudiTzion is that what you have to say upon witness such intelligence???? wow, you my friend will never see life and everything good will pass you by…sad but true….. Because you might wake up one day and realize that you have lost a diamond while you were too busy collecting stones…..done.
alfalafool
October 17, 2011 at 9:08 am
Definitely the most memorable & inspiring key note ever! I still feel so fortunate for having been there for it – a real Public Health Revival!
Atsia1
October 17, 2011 at 9:34 am
This had to be the most amazing APHA speech ever !! I was so glad to have been there!
tiproductions04
October 17, 2011 at 10:18 am
Inspiring and empowering speech!
63yvette
October 17, 2011 at 10:37 am
Awesome. glad I was there.
ellenfreud
October 17, 2011 at 11:28 am
Poetry, passion, performance. I saw this at APHA and was on the edge of my seat.
kimberlyannj
October 17, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Probably the most moving APHA session of all time.
Wensley151
October 17, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Surely no saintlier man ever trod this earth?An original thought in every utterance,delivered with modesty and humility as befits so remarkable an individual
Lylajens
October 17, 2011 at 1:31 pm
What a gift to humanity! So grateful that APHA posted this since I couldn’t make the meeting this year.
isnawica
October 17, 2011 at 2:10 pm
Very powerful! This speech is of historic significance.
derekdb2
October 17, 2011 at 2:45 pm
THE HEBREV’S
1. JUDAH – THE NEGROES
2. BENJAMIN – WEST INDIANS
3. LEVI – HAITIANS
4. SIMEON – DOMINICANS
5. ZEBULON – GUATEMALA TO PANAMA
6. EPHRAIM – PUERTO RICANS
7. MANASSEH – CUBANS
8. GAD – NORTH. AMERICAN. INDIANS
9. REUBEN – SEMINOLE INDIANS
10. NAPHTALI – ARGENTINA AND CHILE
11. ASHER – COLOMBIA TO URUGUAY
12. ISSACHAR – MEXICANS
kyledrums
October 17, 2011 at 2:50 pm
this guy has to be the best professor of all time.
acadiaphile
October 17, 2011 at 2:53 pm
I am *so* sorry I missed hearing this in person. I cannot recall when I’ve been so moved by a speech at APHA–or elsewhere. Say it, Brother West!
luddy83
October 17, 2011 at 3:22 pm
I love Brother West!