American Journalist to Give Public Lecture on President Obama and Changing Views About Race

Riga, February 12, 2010. – Sam Fulwood, a prominent American journalist, commentator and author, will visit Latvia as part of the Embassy’s celebration of Black History Month.  During his stay, Mr. Fulwood will participate in events with journalists, students and the wider public in Riga and in Ventspils.

On February 15, from 17:30 – 18:30, Mr. Fulwood will give a public lecture sponsored by the U.S. Embassy, in cooperation with the Centre for Media Studies at SSE Riga.  The talk will focus on how the election of President Obama as America’s first black president is causing Americans to adjust certain perceptions about race.  The lecture will be open to the public, and will take place at the Stockholm School of Economics (Soros Auditorium).

Sam Fulwood is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington DC-based public policy think tank.  Prior to joining the Center, he pursued a nearly three-decade journalism career that featured posts at several metropolitan newspapers.  During the 1990s, he was a national correspondent in the Washington bureau of the Los Angeles Times, where he created a national race relations beat and contributed to the paper’s Pulitzer-Prize winning coverage of the Los Angeles riots in 1992.

The United States celebrates African American History Month each February to raise awareness of contributions by African Americans to American cultural and political life and to pay tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.

NOTE TO THE EDITOR:

Journalists are welcome to cover Mr. Fulwood’s public lecture, which will take place on Monday, February 15 from 17:30 – 18:30 at the Stockholm School of Economics (Soros Auditorium), Strelnieku iela 4A. For more information or photos, please, contact the U.S. Embassy’s Press and Media Specialist Kaspars Rūklis (Ruklisk@state.gov or 29405048). Speaker’s bio and photo available at: http://www.americanprogress.org.