by Joyce Rothermel

Following the Sept. 9 speaker, Rev. Jack Bendik addressing “Creating Vibrant Faith Communities Amid Changing Realities” in the Fall Speakers’ Series of the Association of Pittsburgh Priests (APP) comes “A Conversation with Beverly Tatum – Can We talk About Race?” on Wed., Oct. 2, 2019 at 7 PM at the Kearns Spirituality Center, 9000 Babcock Blvd. in Allison Park.

Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D. is a nationally known woman of outstanding awareness and insight. She comes to guide all who attend who strive to understand the difficult experiences of many African Americans. In her easy conversational style, Dr. Tatum will be discussing our unexamined racial attitudes and their impact on the continuing divisions in our country, in dialogue with Rev. Liddy Barlow, Executive Minister of Christian Associates of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Dr. Tatum will also share her concerns about the under-reported re-segregation of America, the topic of her book Can We Talk About Race? And Other Conversations in an Era of School Re-Segregation.

A thought-leader in higher education and a clinical psychologist, her frequent focus on children and teens led to her path-breaking, best-selling book Why Are All the Black Children Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?.

Dr. Tatum’s recent TED Talk “Is my skin brown because I drank chocolate milk?” was enormously popular. She was a dialogue partner with President Clinton on his nationally televised series on race, as well as a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show.

Those who attend will participate in an important, timely conversation with a woman who has not only studied whereof she speaks, but has also lived it.

Pursuing her degree in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Dr. Tatum was often the only black student in her classes, one who would go on to author several books, as well as to become President of Spelman College (2002 -2015), the oldest historically black women’s college. Among other books she has authored is Assimilation Blues: Black Families in a White Community.