Speechifying: Celebrating the Words & Legacy of Johnnetta Betsch Cole

Join Drs. Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Celeste Watkins-Hayes, and Erica Lorraine Williams for a special book launch event at Spelman College. Books will be available for purchase.

Speechifying: The Words and Legacy of Johnnetta Betsch Cole collects the most important speeches of Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole—noted Black feminist anthropologist, the first Black female president of Spelman College, former director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art, and former chair and president of the National Council of Negro Women. Her inspirational and insightful speeches have been compiled and curated by two noted academic leaders, each of them former students of Dr. Cole: University of Michigan sociologist, dean, and Spelman alumna Celeste Watkins-Hayes and Spelman anthropologist Erica Lorraine Williams.

Faculty Expert

Celeste M. Watkins-Hayes

Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy; Director, Center for Racial Justice; Jean E. Fairfax Collegiate Professor of Public Policy; University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; Professor of Sociology; Research and Community Impact Fellow, Anti-Racism Collaborative

Watkins-Hayes is an internationally-recognized scholar and expert on HIV/AIDS; urban poverty; social policy; and racial, class, and gender inequality. Her work illuminates social problems of great interest to scholars, communities, and policymakers. She works at the intersection of sociology, African American Studies, and public policy. Her work analyzes the impact of the HIV epidemic on women and the growth of the HIV safety net.

• Center for Racial Justice
• Speechifying
• Johnnetta Betsch Cole
• Celeste Watkins-Hayes
• Spelman College