Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr., a nationally renowned speaker, best-selling author, scholar, and frequent media commentator, will deliver Rhodes College’s annual Constitution Day lecture on Friday, Oct. 23, at 5:30 p.m. in McNeill Concert Hall (West Campus). The title of the talk is “America at 250.”
The purpose of Rhodes’ annual Constitution Day event is to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787 and to reflect on the role and function of the government and Americans’ liberties and obligations as citizens. Starting on Constitution Day—September 17, the college’s Barret Library will feature a framed copy of the Constitution along with related books and works by Glaude.
Glaude is the author of several books, including We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For and the New York Times bestseller Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own.
His recent book America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries (2026). According to the book’s description: America, U.S.A., deliberately formulated and beautifully written, details a heart-wrenching exploration of America’s legacy. It is a magnificently complex combination of lessons and voices—from W.E.B. DuBois and John Dos Passos to Herman Melville and Martin Luther King, Jr.—that, together, paint a sprawling and honest tableau of the United States, its complicated past, and ever more tenuous future.
Glaude holds a Ph.D. in religion from Princeton University and currently serves as the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor there.
Glaude’s lecture at Rhodes on Oct. 23 is free and open to the public, but attendees must pre-register using this link: https://fs22.formsite.com/webmanagerrhodesedu/udvfen0iot/index
Those with specific inquiries about the Rhodes event can contact the Department of History at 901-843-3662.