From the 18th century slave ship origins of “Amazing Grace” to the singing of that hymn by President Barack Obama to mourners grieving the 2015 racist murders of Black parishioners in Charleston, leading social historian Professor Earl Lewis uses key moments in US and UK history to examine how individuals and institutions have sought to repair the impact of slavery and systemic racism. How in this highly fractionated age, Professor Lewis asks, do we build grace-filled communities that embrace both difference and inclusivity?

Earl Lewis is the Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University Professor of History, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Public Policy at the University of Michigan and the founding director of the university’s Center for Social Solutions. From March 2013-2018, he served as president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. An author and esteemed social historian, he is past president of the Organization of American Historians. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008) and the recipient of 11 honorary degrees, he has held faculty and administrative appointments at Michigan (1989–2004) and the University of California, Berkeley (1984–89). From 2004–2012, he served as Emory University’s provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of History and African American Studies.

The annual Fulbright Distinguished Lecture is hosted by the University of Edinburgh, in collaboration with the US-UK Fulbright Commission; King's College London; Pembroke College, University of Oxford; and the Lois Roth Endowment.