Journalist, activist Chuck Stone to speak Nov. 3 at UD

12:05 p.m., Oct. 27, 2003--Chuck Stone, a well-known journalist, political activist and former UD faculty member, will return to the University of Delaware on Monday night, Nov. 3, to offer a speech titled "The Politics of Idealism in a World of Materialism: Stephen Decatur and George W. Bush vs. Alcibiades and Martin Luther King Jr."

Chuck Stone

Stone, a professor of English at Delaware from 1983–91, will speak in 127 Memorial Hall at 7:30 p.m. The public is invited. Now 79 years old, Stone is the Walter Spearman Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Stone and illustrator and Newark resident Jeannie Jackson, a retired UD graphic artist and photographer, will sign copies of their new children's book, “Squizzy the Black Squirrel: A Fabulous Fable of Friendship,” at a reception in Memorial Hall after the speech.

Throughout the 1970s and '80s, Stone was a nationally syndicated columnist and senior editor at the Philadelphia Daily News, and he worked often as a national television news commentator and as a talk show host for radio and television programs aired in Philadelphia.

Stone was the founding president of the National Association of Black Journalists, and in 1995 that group honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. He recently received similar honors from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, and in 2000, the University of Delaware awarded him with its Medal of Distinction for his contributions to society.

Best known for his work as editor of three major black newspapers during the dawning years of the civil rights movement and as a central organizer and theoretician of the Black Power movement, Stone served two years as special assistant to the controversial Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr.

In the 1960s, Stone authored three books, “Tell It Like It Is,” “Black Political Power in America” and a novel, “King Strut.” All of them focused on the theme of Black Power.

While at the University of Delaware, Stone received an Excellence in Teaching Award in 1989. Two years later, he received the same award for his work as a professor at the University of North Carolina.

Stone’s Nov. 3 visit is sponsored by UD’s Department of English.

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