Unearthed From the Archives

The Road to the Distinguished Lecture Series

By James Hibbard, University Archivist

SHIRLEY CHISHOLM

SPOKE to a crowd of 1,500-plus at the Williams Fieldhouse during the first Distinguished Lecture Series event in 1989.

ANDY WARHOL DISAPPOINTED

attendees by showing a film and speaking very little. Warhol is pictured here (at left) with his female associate and the avant-garde film director Paul Morrissey.

In her unmistakable voice,

Shirley Chisholm spoke to a crowd of 1,500-plus at the Williams Fieldhouse on the morning of April 4, 1989. Her theme was “social change comes only after a common knowledge of who we are” is achieved. A social justice advocate, Chisholm had been the first African American woman elected to Congress, serving her New York district in the US Congress from 1969–83. Chisholm had gained national attention when she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. Referencing her presidential campaign in her speech, Chisholm noted that “I did not run for president to be cute. I wrote speeches for the politicians and knew what was going on.” At the conclusion of her speech, Chisholm received a standing ovation. As one person noted, Chisholm’s speech “not only informs, but inspires.” That is exactly what the Student Activities Board, the organizers of the event, had in mind.

Chisholm’s speech marked an important milestone in UW-Platteville’s history: it was the first annual Distinguished Lecture Series event. For decades, the university had occasionally hosted speakers, among them Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant in 1868, pastor and reformer Jenkin Lloyd Jones in 1906, and decorated World War II bomber pilot Captain Darrel Brady in 1948. Then in September 1959, Massachusetts Senator and future president John F.

BOXER MUHAMMAD ALI was one of many well-known celebrities to speak at a Distinguished Lecture Series event.

“UNCLE JACK’S PODIUM”

John F. Kennedy, then a Massachusetts Senator, spoke in the Old Main building in 1959. The lectern Kennedy used is on display in the Luce Museum in Ullsvik Hall.

Kennedy spoke on campus in the Old Main building. Kennedy’s speech marked a change in speaking events. Sponsored by the Young Democrats’ Club, its success inspired other groups to host campus speaking events, which would eventually lead to the annual Distinguished Lecture Series.

Continuing with the Kennedy speech model, in 1961 the English department began its “special program,” sponsoring speakers who focused on the industrial field and space exploration. Another series, the “Women’s Program Series,” was sponsored primarily by the Athenaeum and Kariatethes women’s student societies on campus, which invited speakers to address world economics. And in 1963, the college’s Concert, Lecture and Entertainment series hosted radio personality Paul Harvey’s speech.

In 1967, another significant step toward organizing formal speaking events occurred when the Student Activities Board created the Forum Series. The primary purpose of the Forum Series was to inform and engage students “of new developments in specialized areas of study.” From this time onward, most speakers and artists were sponsored by the Forum Series.

One of the first speakers of the Forum Series, Pierre Salinger, President Kennedy’s press secretary, spoke on “The Kennedy Years and After” in February 1967. Later that same year, CBS news correspondent Roger Mudd spoke. The next year, 1968, the university hosted two wellknown speakers, defense attorney F. Lee Bailey and pop artist Andy Warhol. Unfortunately, Warhol’s event was a disappointment. Warhol showed a one-hour film clip and spoke very little. As the Exponent correspondent explained, Warhol did entertain, but “failed miserably” to “enlighten students” concerning art. Over the next two decades, several well-known celebrities and artists spoke on campus: everyone from boxer Muhammad Ali, women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem, and entertainer Dick Gregory to US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, author Tom Wolfe, and civil rights activist Julian Bond.

The success of the Forum Series led to the Student Activities Board establishing the Distinguished Lecture Series in 1989. Since Shirley Chisholm’s speech, the Distinguished Lecture Series has continued providing nationally known speakers annually. Long-time White House correspondent Helen Thomas spoke in 2006; Robert Ballard, the person who led the expedition that discovered the Titanic in 1985, spoke in 2012; Consumer Advocate Ralph Nadar holds the distinction of speaking at both the Forum Series (1970) and the Distinguished Lecture Series (1990). Finally, in the age of COVID-19, Dr. Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, spoke via Zoom in 2021.

One of the most poignant Distinguished Lecture Series moments came in 2010 when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke on environmental issues in the Williams Fieldhouse. For Kennedy’s speech, the university had provided him with the same podium President Kennedy used in 1959. As he began speaking, Kennedy, who was accustomed to speaking without a podium, said, “Excuse me a minute while I move Uncle Jack’s podium.”

“Uncle Jack’s podium,” which, incidentally, Chisholm also used, can be seen in the Luce Museum in Ullsvik Hall. The Distinguished Lecture Series occurs every spring.