Pulitzer Prize-Winning Columnist to Speak at Coker
William Raspberry Delivering Keynote Address
at Teacher Education Conference

Hartsville, S.C. — Acclaimed journalist William Raspberry is speaking at Coker College on Friday, March 30 at 10 a.m. in the Watson Theater of the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Performing Arts Center. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend. Raspberry is delivering the keynote address for “Meeting the Challenge of Poverty,” the spring conference of the South Carolina Association of Colleges of Teacher Education and the South Carolina Association of Teacher Education that is being held at Coker College.

The public is also invited to a panel discussion on educational issues challenging South Carolina immediately following Raspberry’s speech in Watson Theater. Panel participants are Harris DeLoach, CEO of Sonoco Products Company and president of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, Dr. James Rex, South Carolina superintendent of schools, John Tindal, chair of the state board of education, journalist Traci Quinn of Osteen Publishing Company, state senator Gerald Malloy, and state representatives Jay Lucas and Denny Neilson. Nicole Boone of WBTW-TV will moderate the discussion.

A firm believer in “the magic of education,” Raspberry recently retired from The Washington Post after forging a career based on the observation of human relations. After starting his newspaper column in 1966, Raspberry became known as a champion of truth, reporting on matters of critical importance to the country. He often addressed the latest ideas and proposed answers to social dilemmas. Read by millions of Americans, his opinions have served as the springboard for discussion in newsrooms and classrooms, in the White House and in Congress. In 1994, Raspberry was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

 “I don’t enjoy celebrating problems,” he has said. “I talk about problems with a view to inching toward solutions.”

The son of Mississippi school teachers, Raspberry grew up in the small town Okolona.  He graduated from Indiana Central College with a B.S. in History and began his journalistic career with The Indianapolis Recorder. He now holds the Knight Chair in Communications and Journalism at Duke University.

 

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