Journalist and author to speak at Sacred Heart Schools on November 9

In an event open to the wider community, Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton will host “An Evening with Isabel Wilkerson” on Thursday, November 9, 2023, on the Sacred Heart campus from 5:30 to 7:15 pm. At the event, Wilkerson will share insight on her extensive experience and perspective as a journalist-researcher-historian, hold an open Q&A session, and end with a book-signing.

This event is free and open to the public. Advance registration is required for entry, and can be completed online.

As part of her campus visit, Wilkerson will also meet privately with a small group of Sacred Heart Prep students for more intimate conversation, earlier in the school day.

A prolific writer and accomplished journalist, Wilkerson was the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for journalism, which she did in 1994 as Chicago Bureau Chief for the New York Times. In 2015, she additionally became a National Humanities Medal-winner, recognized for her 2011 masterwork, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, which chronicles the “decades-long migration of Black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.”

Her most recent bestseller — Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020) — was adapted for film in 2023, now set to release in early 2024. A frequent guest on broadcast and syndicated programs, Wilkerson has been featured on the Trevor Noah, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Oprah Winfrey shows and podcasts, to name a few.

“We’re so grateful for Ms. Wilkerson’s ability to speak with such humanity and historical clarity about some of the causes of our country’s injustices and the ways in which we too oen feel separated from one another,” said Dr. Ben Su, Sacred Heart Schools’ Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access, and one of the primary organizers for Wilkerson’s campus visit.

“[Our hope is]…that the evening will bring our school and larger community closer together through learning, hope, and a shared desire to continue working toward building a better world for all of us,” he added.