"A specter of despair haunts America. Wealth inequality and class polarization are escalating. This bleak portrait is accentuated among African Americans. The fragile black middle class fights a white backlash. And the besieged black poor struggle to survive. Nearly thirty years after Dr. King's murder, black America sits on the brink of collective despair." West spoke at Roxbury Community College, a largely black school in a poor area just outside of Boston.

Cornel West
Cornel West, University Professor of Religion at Princeton, has been called "the preeminent African American intellectual of his generation." With his preacher-like cadences and passionate delivery, he is much in demand as a speaker. A prolific author, his book "Race Matters" was a bestseller. His latest book is "Democracy Matters."