Juan Williams, senior correspondent for National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and author of an acclaimed biography of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, will give a lecture titled The Legacy of Brown vs. the Board of Education at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 12, in the Bates College Chapel. The public is invited free of charge.

Part of a yearlong series of events examining the legacy of the 1954 Supreme Court case outlawing segregation in public schools, the event is sponsored by the law firm of Skelton Taintor & Abbott, the Harward Center for Community Partnership at Bates and the College Lectures Committee. For more information call 207-786-6195.

Author of the critically acclaimed Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary, Williams also wrote the nonfiction bestseller Eyes on the Prize: American’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965, the companion volume to the notable television series. His book This Far by Faith: Stories from the African American Religious Experience (2003) provided the basis for a six-part public television documentary. In 2004, Williams led a team of reporters and editors in the production of My Soul Looks Back in Wonder: Voices of the Civil Rights Experience, accounts of 50 activists from the civil rights movement.

During his 21-year career with The Washington Post, Williams served as an editorial writer, op-ed columnist and White House reporter. He received an Emmy for TV documentary writing and has won widespread praise for a series of documentaries including Politics: The New Black Power.

Williams contributes as a political analyst to the Fox News Channel and is a regular panelist on Fox News Sunday. He has appeared on many television programs, including Nightline, Washington Week in Review, Oprah and CNN’s Crossfire.

A graduate of Haverford College, Williams sits on various boards, including the Washington Journalism Center and the New York Civil Rights Coalition.