FIRST RIDDLE HISTORY LECTURE PLANNED FOR WEDNESDAY

The Inaugural Veryl L. Riddle Distinguished History Lecture will be delivered at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Dempster Auditorium of Crisp Hall on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University.

The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. John David Smith will present the lecture entitled, "How I Became a 'Doubting Thomas' and Came to Know Black Judas." Dr. Smith, who began his education at Southeast in 1980, is now the Graduate Alumni Distinguished Professor of History at North Carolina State University. There he teaches courses on the American South, the Civil War and slavery.

From 1998 to 1999, Smith served as the Fulbright Professor of American Studies at the Amerika-Institut, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, in Munich, Germany. He has lectured in 10 foreign countries on four continents and has received numerous fellowships and awards, including the Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights in North America.

Smith has written or edited 14 books, more than 50 scholarly articles and numerous critical essays, which have appeared in journals, newspapers and magazines. One of his recent books, "Black Judas: William Hannibal Thomas and the "American Negro" is a nominee for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, and the National Book Award.

The Riddle Distinguished History Lecture Series is sponsored by a donation to the Center for Regional History by Veryl Lee Riddle, a prominent St. Louis attorney who was born and raised in Dunklin County and attended Southeast from 1939 to 1940. Riddle has provided support for an endowed lecture series, which will bring distinguished historians to the Southeast campus. Smith's presentation will be the first of these annual lectures.

After attending Southeast in 1939-1940, Riddle returned to Dunklin County as a rural school teacher and then entered government service during World War II. Following the war, he completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Buffalo in New York, and law school at Washington University in St. Louis.

Upon receiving his law degree, he returned to Dunklin County, where he established a law practice in Malden from 1948 to 1967. From that position, he played a major role in the economic development of the community and region, and significantly altered anti-trust law in the nation. In 1967-1969, he established an outstanding record as U.S. Attorney for St. Louis.

In 1969, Riddle joined the Bryan Cave Law firm, where he continues his practice.