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Lecture series to bring in Harvard professor

Dr. Alvin Poussaint will speak Saturday night at the Hilton Carillon.

By M.E. Baker, Times Correspondent
Published February 20, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - Harvard physician and civil rights activist Dr. Alvin Poussaint will visit St. Petersburg this weekend as the featured speaker for the Dr. Carter G. Woodson lecture series.

Poussaint, 73, is professor of psychiatry and faculty associate dean for student affairs at Harvard Medical School.

His appearance is the highlight of a $100-a-plate dinner to be held at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Hilton Carillon, 950 Carillon Drive.

Money raised will go to the Gamma Omicron educational fund, which this year will be presented to the Ebony Scholars founded by Vyrle Davis, a former Pinellas County educator and school administrator, according to event planner Deborah Figgs-Sanders.

Since the 1980s, Poussaint has been closely associated with comedian Bill Cosby. Poussaint was script consultant for The Cosby Show during the show's run from 1984 to 1992. He and Cosby have collaborated on several books, including the 2007 book Come On People: On the Path from Victims to Victors.

That book called on African-Americans to stop thinking of themselves as victims. Some critics said that Poussaint and Cosby did not give sufficient attention to the racism and discrimination still affecting the minority community.

Poussaint was invited to speak because "our thought process is that we need to have all points of view in the community," said Larry Newsome, outreach chairman for Sigma Pi Phi fraternity Gamma Omicron Subordinate Boule, which sponsors the annual event. This is the series' 23rd year.

Newsome said the lecture series is known for the "consistency and quality" of its guest speakers.

"Most of the people who show up to the dinner show up because we have a history of providing a wide range of thought from speakers with national reputations."

Born in East Harlem to Haitian parents, Poussaint received his medical degree from Cornell University. From 1965 to 1967 he was Southern field director of the Medical Committee for Human Rights, providing medical care to civil rights workers in Jackson, Miss., while also working to desegregate health facilities throughout the South.

A book signing and reception will precede the $100-a-plate dinner.

Entertainment will be provided by Shyann Roberts, a student at Christian Classical School for the Arts who recently sang on the television show Showtime at the Apollo. Dundu Dole Urban African Ballet also will perform.

For more information, contact Figgs-Sanders at (727) 420-2819.

[Last modified February 20, 2008, 09:46:36]