Webinar - Writing Memoirs and Dismantling Structural Racism

Larry I. Palmer, professor of law emeritus at Cornell, will discuss how his recently published memoir, Scholarship Boy: Meditations on Family and Race, can contribute to our national dialogue on dismantling structural racism. 

In 1958, fourteen-year-old Larry Palmer left his parents and nine siblings at home in St. Louis and boarded a train to attend Phillips Exeter Academy. In Scholarship Boy, Palmer reflects on his experiences as a young black boy growing up far from home, learning to fit into a white world without becoming estranged from his closely-knit family. The ninth of ten children, he illustrates the ways his sibling relationships shaped him as he was also being molded by his elite education. Palmer's journey from being the "next-to-the-baby" of his family into adulthood reveals the personal and often hidden costs of cultural migration. 

Larry I. Palmer grew up in St. Louis in the 1940s and '50s. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard University, and Yale Law School. Palmer spent most of his career at Cornell University as a law professor and university administrator. His scholarly writing focused on health policy and bioethics, including two books and a collaboration that produced an educational video on the Tuskegee Study of Syphilis in Negro Men. Some of his literary nonfiction has appeared in New England Review and VCU Blackbird and been cited as notable essays in Best American Essays. Author's website: Larryipalmer.com. Palmer lives in Richmond, Virginia. Scholarship Boy is his first book for a general audience. 

6:00pm EDT webinar, gratis. Advance registration required. Registrants will receive the link to view the lecture in the confirmation email.