MIAMI – The twenty third Eric E. Williams Memorial Lecture will happen at 7:15 p.m. (EST) on Friday, March 28, 2025 on the AT&T Convention Heart, College of Texas, Austin (UT). The occasion, with a reception earlier than at 6:15 p.m. is free and open to the general public. Live-streaming will be available and post-Lecture viewing accessible on the UT Warfield Heart’s YouTube channel.
After a report 19 consecutive years at Florida Worldwide College (FIU), in 2021 the Lecture found a new home on the John L. Warfield Heart for African and African American Research on the College of Texas, Austin.
Celebrating Eric Williams an internet exhibition of the Eric Williams Memorial Assortment Museum at The College of the West Indies (UWI, Trinidad and Tobago) can also be accessible for viewing.
Eric Williams Memorial Lecture Host: Abby Phillip
This yr, the Lecture hosts award-winning Abby Phillip, of Trinidad and Tobago parentage. Phillip anchors Information Night time with Abby Phillip airing weeknights on CNN.
Phillip takes a wise method to the day’s greatest tales. She focuses on details and the reality. Her background in Washington reporting helps her hold the highly effective sincere. She conducts robust interviews and hosts partaking conversations with many various viewpoints.
“As a famend journalist, Abby Phillip was a pure alternative to present the Eric Williams Memorial Lecture,” says Warfield Heart Director Dr. Jennifer Wilks. “Williams’ outstanding legacy features a collection of well-liked public lectures in a park which he dubbed the ‘College’ of Woodford Sq. (in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad), and Phillip’s dedication to retaining audiences knowledgeable is an excellent testomony to that custom of public engagement.”
Honoring Caribbean Statesman
Established in 1999 at FIU, the Eric Williams Memorial Lecture honors the legendary Caribbean statesman, eminent historian, and writer of a number of books.
His 1944 groundbreaking examine Capitalism and Slavery arguably re-framed the historiography of the British Transatlantic Slave Commerce and established the contribution of Caribbean slavery to the event of each Britain and America.
It has been rendered in 9 languages, together with Chinese language, Japanese, Russian, Turkish, and Korean, with German and Dutch variations on the way in which.
An 80-year-old nonetheless extremely controversial and provocative textual content, popularly known as The Williams Thesis, the guide argues, amongst different propositions, that slave commerce income fueled the rise of the British Industrial Revolution; and that its declining profitability, not solely humanitarianism, gave the impetus to British abolition. By no means out of print within the US, in March 2022 Capitalism and Slavery was listed at #5 on the UK Sunday Instances Bestseller listing.
Eric Williams was the primary Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. He led the federal government for 25 years till he died in 1981. He led the nation to Independence from Britain in 1962 and to Republican standing in 1976.
Previous Eric Williams Memorial Lecture Audio system
Amongst prior Eric Williams Memorial Lecture audio system have been: the late John Hope Franklin, one among America’s premier historians of the African American expertise; Kenneth Kaunda, former President of the Republic of Zambia; Cynthia Pratt, former Deputy Prime Minister of the Bahamas; Mia Mottley, now Prime Minister of Barbados; Beverly Anderson-Manley, former First Woman of Jamaica; Portia Simpson Miller, former Prime Minister of Jamaica; Hon. Kenny Anthony, former Prime Minister of Saint Lucia; Hon. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and The Grenadines; prize-winning Haitian writer Edwige Danticat; award-winning writer, historian and educator, Dr. Carol Anderson of White Rage fame; and famend activist Dr. Angela Davis in each 2003 and 2023.
The Lecture goals to create an area for discussing essential points in Caribbean and African Diaspora historical past and politics. The occasion is collectively supported by numerous organizations and other people. These embody:
- UT’s Heart for International Change and Media
- LLILAS Caribbean Research Initiative – College of Journalism and Media
- Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Lashley
- Jerry Nagee
The Eric Williams Memorial Assortment Analysis Library, Archives & Museum at The College of the West Indies backs the Lecture. It was established in 1998 by Colin L. Powell, a former US Secretary of State, and earned a spot on UNESCO’s esteemed Reminiscence of the World Register in 1999.
Books by and about Eric Williams shall be accessible for buy on the Lecture.
