Note: Media must pre-register for the event by contacting Aaron Latham at alatham@law.ua.edu by 4 p.m. Central Time on Monday, Sept. 20.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. will be the keynote speaker at an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee on Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 3:30 p.m. in The University of Alabama Law School McMillan Lecture Hall, rooms 287/288.
The event is co-sponsored by the UA Law School and Honors College.
Lee, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, attended law school at UA during the late 1940s.
At the campus event, Kenneth C. Randall, dean of the law school, will announce the launch of a new national book award called The Harper Lee Prize for Legal Literature. The prize will be given annually to a published, book-length work of fiction that best exemplifies the role of lawyers in society and lawyers’ power to effect change. Lee has approved the law school’s establishment of the prize.
Earlier this year, a committee of Honors College students led by UA sophomore David Wilson of Tuscaloosa submitted a formal invitation to Holder, and the students have played a significant role in planning the anniversary celebration.
The event, which is sponsored by the Honors College as part of the Anne Campbell Bloom Lecture Series, is free and open to the public, but seating will be limited. Those who are planning to attend are advised that book bags, handbags or large coats will not be permitted in the McMillan Lecture Hall.
Holder’s visit will mark the second high-ranking federal official to speak at the UA Law School this year. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. delivered the law school’s spring Albritton Lecture in March.
Contact
Aaron Latham, 205/348-5195, alatham@law.ua.edu